One last quest
by TheGhostQueen13
Summary: Chiron is worried about Hogwarts. Every since Dumbledore died he lost his only source of news in the wizarding world. A quest is launched to discover what happened. Meanwhile The golden trio are asked back to Hogwarts to repeat their seventh year. Will the demigods be able to keep their identities secret. Or will the demigods, and their world, be exposed? Rated T for violence.
1. Chapter 1

"What?!" Percy yelled, bolting up from his chair.

"If you would just calm down Percy I'll explain." Chiron said while Annabeth tried to pull him back down.

"I will not calm down!" Percy pointed a finger at Chiron, "He is suggesting we go on another quest so soon after the giant war! No, the answer is no Chiron." With that he stormed off with the drinking glasses rattling in the ping pong table.

"I'll talk to him." Annabeth said getting up, "I'm sure he'll accept, it is only a scouting mission." with that she followed her boyfriend out of the big house.

~oOo~

She found him sitting at the bottom of the lake, chatting with a niad. She dropped her new dagger, a gift from Leo, into the lake. Percy glanced at it, then at her. He picked it up and the water carried him up onto the dock.

"You dropped this." he said, handing her the dagger.

"You're frowning seaweed brain," she turned his head toward her, "Hey, it's only a scouting mission." He looked her in the eye.

"There are _always_ monsters." she smiled sadly, "Yes, there are. But would you rather fight them here, or on a quest?" he gave in, "Fine, but no more after this, after this we go to college in new rome and make a life together, okay wise girl." She smiled "Deal."

~oOo~

The pair made their way back to the big house and met Chiron, who explained the rest of the quest in detail. "You'll leave to the school in two days, you have till then to assemble your group. It will be the usual group of three since there is no big prophecy to tell us otherwise." Percy and Annabeth nodded.

"Okay, I think that's all, you can go pack your things and find your third quester."

They left the big house and headed to their cabins to pack. "Yo, Percy, Annabeth!" Leo yelled from Festus as he flew over the big house. They had started sending Leo out on Festus to pick up new campers when a sater reported finding one, it was less dangerous that way. They waved back as Leo disappeared over half blood hill. They parted ways to go to their separate cabins and pack.

Annabeth entered the near empty Athena cabin. There were a small group of her siblings reviewing a battle plan for capture the flag, which was taking place at the end of the week. She waved to them briefly and took out her backpack. She packed herself a couple sets of cloths and a collection of extra weapons, along with a water bottle of nectar and a few plastic baggies of ambrosia. She hesitated a moment before adding a pouch of drachmas for IM's. Then she took out the list Chiron had given her. Both her and percy had been given wands, which Hecate had blessed to produce magic, and separate duffle bags with their wizarding supplies. All they needed were uniforms, which they would get at diagon alley when they got to england.

Annabeth checked the list with the duffle bag to make sure she had everything, she did, then went through her personal bag. Her hand went to her throat, where her bead necklace rested, now with an orange and purple bead with the roman laurels under the greek pegasus in black painted onto its clay surface. She took it off and looked at it, running her fingers over all the beads and remembering each adventure. She put it back around her neck, resolving to bring it with her to the wizarding school. It wasn't like she was bringing Festus, a necklace would be easy to explain.

She met Percy outside his cabin. "Who do you want to bring?" he asked when he saw her. "I don't know, maybe Will? Having a doctor would be useful, considering we don't know how their wizard cures will mix with our godly blood." Percy considered this, then glanced behind her, where Will and Nico were talking on their way to the sword fighting area, "But do you want to take him away from Nico this soon? I mean the kid hardly smiles as is, I think that Nico needs Will more than we need him right now." Annabeth nodded, "How about Hazel, she's good with the mist, so if the wizards can see through it she can cover up anything suspicious, plus, she knows us, which means if we go running off she'll come up with a viable excuse." Percy nodded, "All we have to do is convince her to come with us."

In agreement, they made their way to the climbing wall, where Hazel was watching Frank make his way up the shaking stones. They came up next to her just as a fresh stream of lava started flowing down the rocks toward Frank.

"Hey Hazel." Percy said as Frank swung himself out of the lava's path and continued to climb. "Hey Percy" she responded, eyes glued to the climbing wall. "So Annabeth and I have a quest, and we were wondering in you would join us?" she glanced at him, "What's the quest- Frank on your left!" she shouted a warning at her boyfriend just as a boulder tumbled down at him. He dodged and shouted something back at her, probably a thank you, before continuing his climb, a little faster now.

"Well, it's just a scouting mission, minimal combat. We have to go to this wizarding school in, Scotland was it? And check up on the school, apparently Chiron's sorce died in a wizarding war that ended recently and he just wants us to check on the aftermath. We aren't allowed to tell anyone who we are, instead we're supposed to pose as witches and wizards and attend for our seventh year there." Hazel cheered as her boyfriend reached the top of the wall just before the two walls crashed together and turned to face them, "Ya, sure. It'll just be the three of us?" Annabeth nodded, both her and Percy were fidgeting from spending to much time in one place.

Frank started making his way down the wall using the same path he had used to get up and Hazel finally turned to them. "So wizards exist?" she asked, not even a little surprised. "Apparently." Percy said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "When do we leave?" Hazel asked, once again watching Frank's progress.

"Two days, we'll be riding pegasi, but I'm sure you'd prefer Arion." Annabeth said and Hazel nodded and shouted at Frank, who nearly put his hand on a stream of lava. "I'll pack, I'm sure there are some things I'll need for this wizarding school, textbooks and such."

"Ya, and uniforms, we'll get those in england, some place called Diagon ally." Hazel wrinkled her nose at the word 'uniforms' but nodded. "What's the name of the school?" Percy snickered and Annabeth elbowed him in the ribs, "Oh come on, it's ridiculous!" He protested and Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Hogwarts." She said and Hazel giggled, "Really, like, some wizard actually founded a school and named it Hogwarts." Hazel was laughing harder now, "Yep, and no one thought to change it." Percy said and they both bust out laughing. Annabeth tried to keep a straight face but joined them after a few seconds.

Percy finally composed himself and wiped the tears from his eyes, "So we leave in two days, apparently there's a celebrity of sorts repeating his seventh year because of the war. He was apparently the one to kill the evil wizard who lead the other side of the war, Voldemort I think, anyway Chiron thought that we should know about him and his friends, Ron, Hermione, and his girlfriend Ginny." Hazel nodded and stood, wiping away her tears as Annabeth did the same. They went over the specifics, finishing just as Frank made it to the bottom of the wall.

Hazel ran to her boyfriend and started to explain the quest to him While Percy and Annabeth made their way to the woods to test their luck with the monsters there.

~oOo~

Two days later the three of them stood on half blood hill with their packs and prepared to leave. Blackjack was there with another pegasus Percy had never seen before with a spotted coat like an appaloosa and dusty grey wings to match the spotts. Annabeth mounted the new pegasus and Percy got on Blackjack. Hazel said her last goodbyes to Frank and summoned Arion, who spouted out what percy supposed was supposed to be a greeting but was laced with so many words that he dared not repeat that he wondered just how friendly he was trying to be.

Hazel gave Frank a final peck on the lips and mounted Arion, her spatha strapped at her side. Chiron had objected to her bringing it but she had argued that they might encounter monsters on their way and she didn't want to be defenceless if that happened. Chiron had allowed her to keep it, but insisted she send it back with Arion when they got to safety. She had agreed, but Annabeth doubted she would comply.

Chiron stepped forward after the rest of the seven had said their goodbyes and addressed the questers, "It is on utmost importance that none of you reveal who, or rather what, you really are. Think of the wizards the way you think of mortals. They don't need to know and thus, shouldn't know. You will all be there under the guise of american transfer students from 'Chiron's academy and summer camp of magic and combat' or you can refer to it as 'Chiron academy'. The headmaster will be unaware of what you are, only that you do not come from that academy and that an old friend of the former headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had requested you go there for the year. Albus was my former source and was trusted by the new headmaster, professor Mcgonagall. If you must reveal your identities to her I give you permission to do so, but only if you must." he then said his goodbyes and sent the others back to camp.

The pegasi lifted into the air and took off, headed for England, while Arion sped off in the same direction. Annabeth laughed and spread her arms. Percy looked at her quizzically, "Just like old time's!" she said and whooped. Percy laughed leaned down, "Race ya!" he shouted to her, "You're on!" she said and the pegasi put on a burst of speed.


	2. Chapter 2

They arrived at the leaky caldron just as the last sliver of sun peaked over the horizon. Hazel led them inside, where a big, hairy man stood waiting for them. "Y'r late." he said after they introduced themselves. He waved the group after him and led them to their room. They stayed the night rather uneventfully and got up the next morning with Hagrid waiting for them. He led them to a brick wall, which he tapped with his wand. The entrance to diagon alley opened and they walked through, unfazed by the magic, they had, after all, sailed on a giant flying warship with a bunch of demigods, all with incredible powers, to stop mother earth from waking up.

Hagrid gave them directions to the hogwarts express, which would leave later that day, and left to take care of some business elsewhere. Then he was gone and the demigods were on their own. "Let's go find that robe place to get our uniforms." Annabeth said, breaking the others out of their trances. The ally was just huge! There was so much to see and do and buy, but they had a limited budget and not enough time. So they grudgingly picked up their bags and pushed their way through the crowded streets till they found what looked like the store in the picture Chiron had given them, though they couldn't be sure because none of them were able to read the sign above the store.

Hazel took the picture and examined it, then looked up at the store, then back at the picture. "It's the same place." she said and gave the picture back to Annabeth. "Are you sure?" Percy asked and glanced at the photo. "Yes, I'm sure Percy, now let's go so we don't miss the train." He shrugged and followed the girls in.

A woman inside the shop met them and led them to a room where there was a group of kids all surrounding a boy, who was standing on a sort of stand and being measured by another woman. There were three of them, one was a boy with bright red hair like Elizabeth's, another was a girl with bushy brown hair, and the third, the boy being measured, had black hair and was facing them so they could see emerald green eyes. But, apart form the hair and eyes, he looked nothing like Percy.

The woman pulled Annabeth onto another small stand and began to take her measurements while she explained what they needed. Percy leaned against the wall and talked to Annabeth while twirling riptide in his fingers. Hazel put her bags on the floor and turned her attention to the other kids.

"-growing so much" the girl was saying, "It's not like I can help it Hermione, it's not like there's any spell to keep me from growing, not one they would teach at Hogwarts anyway." the black haired boy responded. _Hermione_ Hazel noted and approached them. "Hi," she said, pulling on the strings of her panda sweater, "I'm Hazel, I'm starting my seventh year at Hogwarts as an exchange student, I couldn't help but notice you mentioned the school. I don't know much about it so I was wondering if, maybe, you would tell me more about it." Hermione looked her up and down and stuck out her hand, "Hermione Granger, seventh year Gryffindor at Hogwarts, nice to meet you." Hazel shook her hand and there was an awkward moment of silence before Hazel realized they were waiting for a similar introduction from her. She hastily stuck out her hand and said, "Hazel Levesque, seventh year from Chiron's academy and summer camp of magic and combat." the redhead's eyes widened, "And combat? I thought magic schools only taught magic!" Hermione, however, was looking at her skeptically, "I've never heard of that school." she said, raising an eyebrow. "You wouldn't have." Percy chimed in, apparently having ended his conversation with Annabeth. "There is no written record of its existence, the only records you'll find are in the academy itself. This is to make sure it's the safest place on earth." Hermione looked confused, "But if there's no record of it, how would the school arrange for exchange students?" she was completely poker faced, but Hazel could see the triumphant gleam in her eye, as if she had caught them in a lie.

"Because," Annabeth Chimed in, apparently done being fitted, "Our Headmaster is old friends with your former headmaster, Dumbledore I believe." the woman Waved Percy over and he left to be fitter for his robes, as the woman said the uniforms would be, like everything else in the shop, the uniforms would be shapeless black robes.

"I'm Annabeth by the way, that's Percy, my boyfriend. We're with Hazel." the red head spoke up, "I'm ron, and you already know who this is." he said, gesturing first to himself, then to the dark haired boy. Hazel shook her head, "No, actually I don't." All of them looked shocked, including the woman taking the boys measurments as she helped him down and took the Ron up to begin his measurements. "You've never heard of Harry potter?!" Hermione said, shocked, Harry just looked uncomfortable. "Of course!" Annabeth said, not missing a beat, "We just hadn't seen what he looked like yet, the war didn't affect us much." Hermione looked satisfied but Harry looked slightly disappointed, like he was looking forward to hanging out with someone who didn't know who he was. Any of the seven could relate to that, well maybe not Leo, but the rest of them were getting a little sick of the attention.

Harry spoke up, "Stop questioning them Hermione, they've only just arrived." She closed her mouth but glared at Harry. "Well, we should get going in a few minutes here to catch the train, we don't usually cut it this close but Ron was a bit late getting up and I had forgotten to pack so we were in a bit of a rush." the girls laughed and Annabeth said, "Yeah, we weren't sure when the train left or how long it would take to get here so we ended up running a bit late."

The woman finished with Percy and motioned Hazel over while Percy rejoined the group. "Hey, we knew how long it would take to get here!" he said, slightly offended, "Oh yeah? Then tell me, seaweed brain, how long did it take?" He pouted and said, "Not long." Annabeth laughed and nudged his shoulder, "You have too much faith in Blackjack's speed Percy." He shrugged, "He's a fast Pegasus." Hermione's eyes widened, "Pegasus!" she exclaimed, "I thought those were rare!" Annabeth glared at her boyfriend, he shrugged, and said "Yes, they're rare, but our school has quite a few, one of the reasons it stays off record. If people knew we had as many pegasi as we do they would try to steal them, they are expensive creatures." Hermione perked up, curious, "How many do you have?" she asked Annabeth fidgeted with the end of her ponytail, "I don't know the exact count but, maybe five." she said it like a statement, the topic was closed.

Harry cleared his throat as both Ron and Hazel finished with their measurements, "We've got to get out books and such now so, maybe we'll see you on the train? We usually sit at the back if you want to go looking for us." the demigods promised they would and Harry led his friends out of the shop.

~oOo~

A while later the demigods entered platform 9¾. Annabeth gasped when she saw the train. It was beautiful as far as trains went and she stared in wonder at everything she saw, drinking it in with gusto. Percy, meanwhile, just laughed at her reaction and took her hand.

The three of them eventually made their way onto the train. Hazel hung back when Percy and Annabeth started talking to each other about 'old times' and referencing previous quests they had gone on together. The three demigods made their way to the back of the train, where they found the golden trio and a girl with red hair whom Annabeth assumed was Ginny. They walked into the near empty cabin and sat down, introducing themselves to the new girl.

"Hi, I'm Annabeth Chase." Annabeth said,holding out her hand. "Ginny Weasley."the girl said and shook it. The others introduced themselves and sat down. Eventually the conversation turned to schools, particularly, the americans mysterious magic and combat academy.

"So it's for magic _and_ combat?" Hermione asked, ever the nosy one that girl.

"Yes, the combat thing is a little unnecessary, but it's in case we are ever without our wands, so we won't be defenceless." Annabeth said smoothly, only to good at lying.

"I guess that makes sense, what with the war and all, but what about other times? What other things could you possibly have to defend yourself from?" Hermione had that look in her eye again,as if she had caught them in a lie.

"Clearly you've never been to New York." Annabeth responded, pulling a textbook out of her duffle bag. "Now Percy," she turned to her boyfriend, "we have to work to catch up, you may be advanced in water based wandless magic,but you need to catch up on everything else." Percy gave her his 'baby seal' face, "Do I have to," She laughed and opened the book. He moaned but complied.

"So Hazel," Harry said, "what kindkind of magic do you specialize in? I heard Percy dose endless water based magic, whatever that means, but what do you do?" Hazel blushed and brought out her wand. "Well, I can do almost any kind of wandless magic, but I specialize in underground type things, like precious metals or stones."

Harry held out his hand for her wand. She handed it over so she could demonstrate. Percy and Annabeth turned their attention to her with masked looks of concern. She took a deep breath. "What would you like me to do." the wizards considered this for a moment, then Ginny spoke up, "How about your specialty, summon a gem." Hazel smirked and extended her senses. There was practically a gold mine right under them. Gold silver and diamonds, all waiting a few miles under the surface. She reached out and selected a gem nearer the surface than the others, a brilliant clear diamond about the size of her fist, and pulled. She opened the window and it flew in.

The wizards mouths dropped open. The demigods smirked. "How are you not rich yet mate?" Ron asked, earning him a smack from Hermione. Hazel laughed, "I am, sort of. My dad is," Harry looked concerned, "Does he use you for you powers or something?" Hazels eyes widened and she looked down, half expecting the ground to open under them, "Oh no nothing like that!" she amended quickly, "He's way more powerful than I am. Where I can summon one dimond he can summon the whole mine. Believe me he is not someone you want to cross." Harry didn't look convinced, she seemed to be overstating his power. No one could summon a whole diamond mine in one go. Hazel let out a breath and dropped the diamond out the window, where Harry watched it burrow back into the earth. _Strange._ He thought.

Their conversation drifted again and soon they stopped at Hogwarts. The exchange students followed Harry's group out of the train. They had a quick conversation with Hagrid over whether or not the exchange students should ride the boats or the carriages, after which they decided to do the later so they could enter the school with people their age and not look so out of place, even though they already did, having not changed into their robes (Hazel and Annabeth wanted to do so in private later so they could hide their swords, Annabeth her drakon bone sword and Hazel her spatha, which she hadn't sent with Arion)

The group made their way to the carriages, chatting about quidditch, which the exchange students had never heard of. When they got to them Percy went up and pet the skeletal horse attached to it. Annabeth grabbed his arm, "Percy no time to pet the horses, come on." the wizards looked at them quizzically while Hazel went up to the two of them, "Percy she's right, the horse can wait we have to get to the school before we're late." they managed to pull Percy from the thestral and onto the carriage.

"You can see them?" Harry asked when they got situated.

"Well, yeah, can't you," Percy said, twirling riptide in his fingers.

"Yes," Harry said, "most of us can. But only people who have seen death can see them." the demigods look at each other, unpleasant memories rising to the surface. "We have all seen things that would make your nightmares run and hide." Percy said darkly, wrapping an arm around Annabeth, who made no attempt to stop him. Hazel looked at her hands, she had seen death himself more than once. She had _been_ dead.

Hermione looked at them, a tinge of sympathy in her eyes, "What did you see?" Hazel shot a look at Percy, who looked about ready to punch the girl, and responded, "You have no right to know." her orleans accent becoming thicker in her anger.

Hermione snapped her mouth shut and they spent the rest of the ride in silence. They parted ways when they entered the school, the wizards going to sit with their house and watch the sorting of the first years and the exchange students waiting with Hagrid outside the doors so they could be sorted after the first years.

A few minutes later the doors clang open and the exchange students stroll in, subconsciously in synchronized military formation. There are gasps and whispers from the students but headmaster Mcgonagall calls for silence and announced that the new seventh years are American exchange students who will be sorted into their houses for the year.

"Chase, Annabeth"

Annabeth walks up to the stool and sits. The hat is placed on her head and she hears its voice in her head, _a brave one, loyal, cunning, smart, any house would do for this one. I'll need to dig deeper, if you would just show me those memories you're hiding there._ Annabeth looked up at the hat, _you sure._ The hat scoffs, _Of course I am, how else am I to determine where to put you._ Annabeth let down her guard. The hat screamed.

There was a collective gasp from the students and teachers as the blood curdling scream echoed down the halls and a single tear slid down Annabeth's cheek, the only sign she saw the memories too. Percy had to be held back by Hazel, who was ready to run up there herself.

"Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff! I don't care! Get me off of her!" the hat screamed and was lifted off Annabeth's head. Percy broke free and ran up to her, engulfing her in a hug and casting glares at everyone around him. Only Hazel would meet his eye.

Mcgonagall Cleared her throat and said "Jackson, Perseus." Percy scowled and stood, passing a numb Annabeth to Hazel, who was standing next to the chair now. Annabeth was muttering something about Luke and spiders when the hat gasped, as if finding something horrifying for the second time, "Put him in any of them, just keep him with the girl! Now by all the gods just let me sort the last one and be done with this!"

Hazel was called and she went up the the chair, sitting down warily. The hat was placed on her head, _Okay Ms. Levesque you can let me in now._ She let the hat into her memories and her breathing became heavier as the hat found her death. _You, you shouldn't even be alive._ There was a series of gasps and small screens as the hat found every terrible thing she had seen or experienced. Eventually the hat finished sifting through her memories and shouted out loud, "Put her anywhere, just keep her with the others, don't separate this lot! Just take me off her and let me be done!"

Confused whispers rolled through the audience. Hazel looked down once the hat was removed to discover a collection of gems unearthed at her feet. She willed them back down where they belonged and joined her friends. The headmaster addressed the students first, "I understand this is… unusual. But we have to get these students sorted into houses now, so,we will let them pick," Shouts of protest ranges through the hall and she raised her hand for silence, "the sorting hat clearly stated that they are eligible for every house so letting them choose shouldn't be a problem." protests still came from st students but the matter was decided. A teacher stepped forward and explained all the houses to the demigods.

They decided to go with Slytherin, as they all knew that they were clever and ambitious, plus, the people there reminded them of the hermes cabin back at camp, where both Annabeth and Percy had spent some time in their childhood,so it would be a little touch of home.

The new students went to join to Slytherins and the headmaster continued with the announcements. Draco Malfoy slid over to them and said, "So what is it that got the hat screaming so much?" he looked them over, clearly not seeing the seething anger in Percy's eyes or the dangerous glint in Annabeth's. Hazel barely spared him a glance, instead opting to talk to the witch across from her about wandless magic.

"It must have been something bad, that hat has seen thousands of memories in his time, what about yours got him all in a knot I wonder." Annabeth smiled sweetly at him. Then he was sprawled on the floor with her foot on his chest. She leaned down and said, "I'll tell you what, how about I send you to where I went and see if you escape with your sanity, then you can ask that again. That is, if you get out alive." she whispered the last part in his ear then stood and sat back next to Percy, who was watching with a smirk.

 **Hey, hope you liked the chapter! I'm sorry if anyone is a little out of character,no matter how hard I try I am not Rick Riordan of JK Rolling so I can't get anything of theirs perfect for the life of me. Okay so I have a contest for you guys, guess my age. I hope to see your guesses in the comments. Don't worry about offending me, I'm not easily offended by anything. If you have anything you'd like to see in the next chapter let me know. Should I have the golden trio find out about the demigods on their own or have the demigods tell them? I think they should find out on their own, I mean the hat did say that Harry would do just as well in Slytherin as in Grifindor, so that should mean that he's clever. And clever people figure things out.**


	3. Chapter 3

The demigods all settled into their rooms. Annabeth and Hazel were in the same room and Percy was in one with Draco and his gang. Percy put down his school bag and rummaged through his personal bag. Draco tried to sneak up behind him and see what was in his bag, but percy whirled around, wand in hand, and suck the wood under Draco's chin. "You are a nosy one aren't you." he said, poking the sick and feeling utterly ridiculous.

"I-I-" Draco stuttered but Percy cut him off, "Save it, If I catch you in my things at any point in time I will not hesitate to hurt you, and don't think I need a wand to do it." Draco whimpered and Percy let him go, going back to his things, "What could you be hiding that you would go to such lengths to hide?" Draco asked, rubbing his neck. Percy laughed bitterly, "Hiding, I wish I could do that." he thought he said it quietly but Draco heard and wisely kept his mouth shut.

Meanwhile in the girls room Annabeth and Hazel were un packing their things from their school bags, but being careful not to show anyone what was in their personal bags.

"So whatever did happen after, you know." Annabeth said, attracting a few curious glances from the others, but they quickly looked away respectfully, not everyone was a snoop.

"Well," Hazel then carefully told Annabeth everything she could of the five remaining adventures. When she got to the house of Hades she stopped, "and I'm sure you were told all about what happened from there." Annabeth laughed, "I was briefed, but not by you, so what happened?" Hazel glanced at the other girls, a few of which were pretending to do something while the eavesdropped. Hazel didn't blame them, she would have done the same, but still. She switched to ancient greek, with some difficulty considering she was roman and had only just started her greek classes, and recounted her battle at the doors.

Annabeth let out a low whistle, "The others do not do your story justice, damn girl. You are one powerful girl." She pulled Hazel into a hug.

The two of them finished unpacking and got to their uniforms. Annabeth pulled out her robe then the uniform, which she laid out on her bed piece by piece. First robes, all good. Next shirt, fine. She pulled out the skirt and nearly screamed, dropping the thing at the same time HAzel pulled hers out, looking only slightly less appalled.

"They expect us to wear _those_!" Annabeth shrieked like an Aphrodite camper who had just been told to wear a codfish on her head (props to you if you got that reference, I know it's not a common one). Hazel held it with two fingers away from her body while Annabeth cringed away from it as if it had a spider on it. "Well, this isn't a combat school. They hardly teach the students to defend themselves, so you wouldn't expect them to have a practical dress code for the girls." Hazel said and dropped the skirt on her bed.

"I won't wear it." Annabeth said and pulled a pair of pants out of her bag that roughly matched the skirt, "If the teachers have a problem with that they can discuss it with Chiron." Hazel nodded in agreement and did the same, finding a pair of dyed jeans with a little chain of colored gems on it. She settled on those and put her personal belongings away, silently thanking the gods that the robes were large enough to conceal her spatha.

~oOo~

The next day, after a night of dreamless sleep, a sort of thank you gift from Hypnos, they started classes. The demigods all had DADA for their first class for a double period, then potions, then care of magical creatures, and finally divination. The headmaster had apparently taken the hat's order that they be kept together seriously.

Percy was joking around with Annabeth, something about a damn, she looked lost but he was laughing his head off so the girls figured it was inside joke from sometime when she wasn't there, maybe when she had been holding up the sky? They entered the classroom where a very smug looking Chiron sat in his wheelchair at the front of the class. There was confused muttering throughout the classroom as the students took in the wheelchair bound middle aged guy who was apparently going to teach their class. Draco spoke the loudest, "Hey, how could an old guy in a wheelchair be more capable of defending himself than we are?" He asked, a little louder than the people around him to ensure the students heard him.

"To answer mister Malfoy's perfectly fair question, I am, in fact, still capable of holding a wand and casting spells. I am the exchange students archery teacher back at my academy in America." His word brought more muttering and shifting as some of the students tried to look at the demigods. "I also teach other forms of combat, but I shouldn't go into that with beginners." He added with a conspiratorial glint in his eye.

Draco scoffed, " _Beginners_?!" he said in outrage, "Many of us just got back from a war! We are far from beginners." Malfoy crossed his arms and Chiron motioned the demigods up to the front, where a raised platform was set up to ensure the audience a good view of the fighting. "Percy, Annabeth, if you would demonstrate a low intensity battle, I know for a fact that both of you have daggers on you, percy maybe one, Annabeth, at least six. Hazel you can do some advanced magic demonstrations next, as you are the best at it. "Hey!" Percy protest but shut up after a look from Annabeth.

The two demigods took fighting stances, armed with daggers that they had hidden in their robes that morning. They had a silent conversation with their eyes, _I'm not going easy on you seaweed brain._ Percy smirked, _bring it on wise girl._ Then they launched at each other, to fast for anyone who wasn't an ADHD demigod to follow. They did move slower than they usually did, and used less force, but they were still a frightening sight as they slashed at each other with blades flashing.

There were gasps every time it looked like one of them would gut the other, and Draco's mouth was hanging open in shock as he ate his words. Hazel just looked bored. The fight ended with percy pining Annabeth to the ground with his knee and holding his dagger to her throat with one hand and holding down her armed hand with his other. "I win wise girl." He said and got up. She scowled at him, "This time, but you know that I could beat you if Chiron hadn't told us to go low intensity." Percy shrugged, "We'll have to have a rematch, how about Athena versus Poseidon in capture the flag when we get back to camp." Annabeth smirked and punched him in the shoulder, "You're on seaweed brain."

They joined the students while Chiron spoke up once again, "As you can see, the combat program at my academy is highly advanced and not to be attempted by any of you, Annabeth here has been training since she was seven years old, that's longer than some of you have know what you are." He paused to let that sink in, looking particularly at Harry, whom Hazel hadn't noticed at first but now spotted at the back with his group, minus Ginny, who was a year below them. Hazel noticed the look of awe on all of their faces, with just a hint of suspicion.

Chiron went on, "Hazel Levesque is among our most advanced students when it comes to wandless magic," There were chuckles from percy and Annabeth and Hazel heard Annabeth mutter, "That's an understatement." Chiron glared at them and they silenced themselves, "As I was saying, she is one of our most advanced students in that field, and is also a skilled fighter in a battle scenario." Draco spoke up again, "Don't you think you and your army of skilled warriors would have been useful during the battle here?" Annabeth reached for her dagger but Percy stopped her, whispering in her ear, "He doesn't know Annabeth." she takes a deep breath and puts her hands at her sides, which somehow made her look even scarier.

Chiron responded, "We may not have been quite as affected as you were during this particular war, but don't think for a moment your's was the only war in the world." He ended the conversation there.

Chiron then motioned for Hazel to continue and she manipulated the mist to make it look like she levitated a quill off a nearby table, then set it back down. Draco was apparently unimpressed and shouted out, "That's all? I thought your best student would have more to offer." everyone knew he couldn't even manage that much, but he seemed to be feeling especially cocky that day. Hazel gave him a sweet smile, then made a chunk of gold the size of a football burst out of the ground right in front of him.

Chiron chuckled and turned to Hazel, "I suppose that concludes that, now for the lesson," he went on to explain a series of spells that only about half the class managed to pull off. Hazel made her way over to the golden trio after successfully replicating a blocking spell three times and watching Ron struggle with it while his friends succeeded at least once each.

"Hey," she said as she approached them with her wand in hand.

"Hi." Harry said while Hermione was busy explaining the spell to Ron.

"You got the spell down pretty quickly I saw." she said with a friendly smile.

"Yeah, I've gotten pretty good at magic over the years, but I'm not as good with wandless magic as you are." Hermione gave up on Ron and came over to join the conversation. "Hi Hazel," She said, stowing her wand.

"So there's this sort of reunion party in the Gryffindor commons tonight, and I was wondering if you would like to come as a sort of guest, since, you know, all that talk about the war on you end. You can bring the other two if you want, but I don't know how the others would feel about that many Slytherins in the Gryffindor commons."

Hazel glanced at the others, joking around and practicing throwing spells at each other. Then she remembered the nightmares. They would come back tonight, no doubt. The gods didn't think they owed the heroes that much, Hypnos was no exception. If he let them sleep peacefully one night it was doubtful he would let them have another the night after. They needed to be in their dorms tonight, together. Hazel figured if she invited them both Annabeth would want to stay out of it, she was not a big fan of parties, not since the 'end of the war' party, thrown by the Stolls. If she went to bed before percy and woke up screaming when Percy was nowhere near… Hazel didn't want her to go through that, it was bad enough she wouldn't be there.

"Naw, I'll go, but the others shouldn't…" Hermione looked at her funny, the suspicion in her eyes growing.

"Why not?" she asked innocently.

Hazel tried to come up with a viable explanation when Ron saved her.

"'Mione, how'd ya say it again?" he asked her

"Here." Hermione said and sounded it out, demonstrating the spell a few times for him before dragging him off to another part of the room to give him a step by step presentation.

Harry looked at Hazel curiously but didn't push the question, much to her relief. "So where is your school, I know it's in America, but where?" She eyed him carefully and considered her answer, wondering if she should mention Camp Jupiter or not. She opted to just be vague so if any of his group asked the others later they wouldn't give out contradictory information. "I can't say, I mean, it was left out of the books for a reason." He nodded as if he understood, but she could tell he didn't.

Class ended and they moved on to their next class. The rest of the day was almost uneventful, but with a demigods luck something was bound to go wrong. And so something did. They had nearly gotten through all of their classes without another surprise when the demigods entered divination.

The teacher was a kooky lady who wasn't taken very seriously by the students, and thank the gods for that. Hazel, Percy, and Annabeth were all sitting at the same table, with the golden trio right next to them. The teacher was walking by their table when she suddenly went rigid and pointed at them, "You," she croaked, "all of you." she took a rattling breath and spoke again, "Seven half bloods shall answer the call," the whole class was watching now, "to storm or fire the world must fall," the demigods eyes were wide in shock, "an oath to keep with final breath," the exchange students all looked at each other, silently agreeing that the past prophecy was nothing to worry about, "and foes bear arms to the doors of death." but she wasn't finished, "three of seven shall go to a place unknown, but be discovered by a change in tone, two worlds combined once again, will the half bloods again defend."

Her body swayed for a second then fell, but Percy caught her, just as he had with Rachel so many times before. He dragged her into a nearby empty chair and waited a moment. Her eyes flew open and caught on Percy, who knelt next to her chair with a look of concern on his face. "Wha-What happened." she said, Percy helped her to her feet and said, "You issued a prophecy." he looked back at his friends, who were shaken. "I-get back to your crystal ball, I'll be fine."

He did as he was told but as soon as he sat down he spoke in latin, which Annabeth could hold a conversation in at this point. " _Another prophecy?!_ " Percy said in a hushed tone, Annabeth and Hazel both groaned and nodded, " _I think so._ " Annabeth couldn't have sounded less enthusiastic. " _At least this time it doesn't say any of us will die._ " Percy said, clearly trying to look on the bright side, " _Been there, done that. No fun._ " Hazel said and there were half hearted laughs from all of them. " _But why so soon, I mean we just got Leo back! And Calypso just got off her island. I just don't think I can handle another prophecy, those things have done nothing but ruin my life so far._ " Annabeth sounded a little hopeless, which was new for all of them. " _You don't suppose we could switch ourselves out for Jason Piper and Leo, do you?_ " Percy said with just a sliver of false hope, " _No, we have to see this through._ " Annabeth's tone was solid, certain. Everyone knew she was right. There was a collective groan and all three of them went back to work.

Unbeknownst to them Hermione was listening at the next table with her wand having cast a recording spell, which she planned to translate that evening during the party. She, Harry and Ron were all talking about the 'prophecy' in hushed tones like the rest of the class, mostly calling it a sure sign she had gone mad. But the exchange students seemed to take it differently. She hoped the recording would tell her just exactly how they took it.


	4. Chapter 4

The night of the party Hazel was in her dorms, looking out the half, submerged window as the giant squid swam lazily past. She had on a casual pair of black jeans and a nice purple top. She had pinned her hair back with a jeweled pin, that was probably worth millions, and a simple black choker.

She had told Annabeth about the party and discovered she was correct, Annabeth had said she would rather stay and study anyway, considering they were supposed to know all this already. Hazel got her point, but figured their grades didn't matter and they'd already proved they could do everything they said they could, so she went. She walked to the Gryffindor common room where Hermione was waiting. The witch whispered the password and held open the door. _I guess the Gryffindor mistrust of Slytherin is more than just gossip._ Hazel thought as she smiled politely and walked in.

The room was decked out in streamers and there was a DJ in one corner playing music at a fairly respectful volume so as to not wake anyone sleeping nearby. As soon as Hazel stepped in the general volume in the room dropped as everyone speculated over who invited the Slytherin exchange student. Hazel blushed with all the eyes on her and took a step back. Hermione saved her by taking her arm and steering her to a corner of the room where the rest of the trio were waiting.

"Hey Hazel," Harry greeted, emptying a glass of something that looked suspiciously alcoholic. Ron took Hermione and dragged her onto the dance floor, leaving Harry and Hazel alone. "So, Chiron said you were 'one of the best' at your camp, who could be better than you are at wandless magic?" he asked and offered her a drink. She accepted it and took a sip, definitely alcoholic. "Oh, there's a whole cabin full of kids who are better than I am, many of them are even younger than I am." She found herself compelled to tell the truth, then it hit her. This was a wizarding school, they had a potions class. Truth potion.

"You tricked me." she said and Harry looked at her quizzically, "I don't know what you're talking about." "Don't lie, there was truth potion in that drink wasn't there?!" She was getting angry. Harry looked like he was about to say he didn't know what she was talking about again but then something seemed to hit him. "Hermione." he muttered and walked onto the dance floor.

Hazel was hit by a sudden wave of dizziness and nearly collapsed onto the nearest chair. Harry came back a minute later with the tricky little witch in tow. "I swear I didn't mean any harm," she was saying when she say Hazel looking about ready to pass out. "How much did she drink?" Hermione asked and Harry looked worried, "Just a sip, this isn't the alcohol, Hermione, what else did you put in her drink?!" He demanded, "I swear I didn't put anything but the truth potion!" Hermione said defensively, "How about you? You had just as much chance as I did to put something in that cup!" that rest was just buzzing in Hazel's ears. She tried to stand muttering something about Chiron then she collapsed.

Harry and Hermione stopped abruptly and kneeled down at her sides, feeling for a pulse. They carried her onto their shoulders while she continued her muttering. They dragged her to the hospital wing, where they found Percy and Annabeth at one of the beds with their arms around each other.

Both exchange students stood abruptly as soon as they saw Hazel. Annabeth said something to Percy in greek and he nodded and ran off while she helped the witch and wizard lay Hazel on a bed. Annabeth demanded they tell her everything. Hermione hesitated, but Harry took over, "Hermione put a truth potion in her drink, but other than that we have no idea what it could be. Maybe one of the others spiked it when none of us were looking or something." Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "Truth potion?" Hermione looked like she had just been caught robbing a bank, "I-I…" She couldn't come up with an excuse, for the first time Hermione had no words.

Percy came back into the room pushing Chiron's wheelchair in front of him. "What happened?" Chiron demanded. His eyes landed on Hermione, who avoided his gaze, looking very guilty. "Hermione, explain." She whimpered and stuttered, "I-I wanted t-to find out wha-what you were hiding, s-so I put a truth potion i-in h-her drink." Chiron's eyes went wide and he turned to Percy "IM camp, get Will and Nico here as soon as possible, Nico will want to know about this." Percy cast a sympathetic glance at Hermione before dashing off to the Slytherin dormitories.

"What's happening to her?" Harry asked. Just then Nico and Will melted out of the shows and ran to Hazel's side. She wasn't looking good, bruises and gashes had appeared on her skin and her nose was bleeding. Will took her pulse and paled "Nico back up, Give me my kit, no witch or wizard of any kind is to touch her, got it." He looked pointedly at the crowd gathering in the hall outside.

"But aren't you a wizard?" Harry said, "And won't she need healing potions, maybe-" "No." Will cut him off, "Your potions have done enough, Nico ambrosia and bandages. Percy, Annabeth, call Leo, we'll need to transport her back to camp, Nico I need your help, Chiron clear a path outside, we need to get somewhere Leo can land." Everyone obeyed his orders without question, except the wizards, who kept trying to ask questions but were continually ignored.

Hazel's cuts and bruises seemed to heal a little and she sat bolt upright, coughing up blood. "Nico hurry!" Will shouted frantically, lifting Hazel up by the arm. Nico took her other arm and they rushed her down the halls as fast as they could, Will giving her sips of nectar and praying to his father.

When they got outside the stars were shining particularly bright, as if to give them light. Zoe nightshade seemed to be looking down on them. Festus made record time and landed just as the sun peeked over the horizon. Will sent out another prayer as he worked to get Hazel stable enough to ride. "Nico, it's a three seater, you'll have to stay the night here, I don't want you over extending your powers, not tonight. I'll take care of your sister, I promise." he gave Nico a quick peck on the lips and helped Leo put Hazel on Festus.

Everyone watched helplessly as the giant bronze dragon lifted into the air and took off for camp half blood. All the demigods were praying to every god in olympus, and all the minor gods, for Hazel's recovery.

Nico turned on Hermione. The look in his eyes made her cringe in fear. " _What did you do._ " He said, deadly calm. She stuttered something like "I-I didn't know. I didn't…" Annabeth put a hand on Nico's shoulder, but he shook it off, "Nico, control yourself." She said harshly, knowing full well that babying him would only make it worse.

"She did this, I want to know what she did." Nico was seething, waves of fear and darkness were rolling off him, but Hermione dared not move.

"It-it was just a truth potion." Nico cursed rather creatively in ancient greek.

"A truth potion!" He said, the temperature dropped.

"Well, what'd you find out?" Hermione looked like she might pass out, "N-nothing," she stuttered and cringed as another wave of fear hit her.

"Nothing she says," Nico mused, "What does a truth potion do exactly, Hermione." He asked through his teeth, spitting her name.

"It shows you the truth." she said quietly, not daring to look in his eyes.

"Well now you've seen it. If your potion doesn't wear off soon she _will_ die. And I will not lose another sister, so you had better pray it does to whatever god you believe in." then he stormed off, leaving Hermione to break down in tears.

 **Hey, sorry about how short this chapter is but making it longer would not have been good for the story. Believe me, I'm limiting the pace for a reason. Anyway, let me know if you would like something in particular to happen in the next chapter. If you are at all a fan of the heroes of Olympus you want Hazel to survive, because obviously, but I'm still thinking. You wont find out till at least the chapter after the next. *Evil laughter*. *Flashing lightning* YOU'RE IN MY DOMAIN NOW! MWA HA HA HA!**


	5. Chapter 5

Nico was awake all night with Percy and Annabeth in the hospital wing. No one dared tell them to leave. Chiron went to bed after a while of staying up, he did, after all, have a class to teach in the morning.

"I can't lose her." Nico said quietly, Percy and Annabeth on either side of him, not touching him but just listening, being there. "I already lost one sister, I can't lose another, not because of some nosy witch." bitterness seeped into his tone and a tear ran down his cheek, Annabeth looked like she wanted to wipe it away but restrained herself, Nico didn't like physical contact.

"She'll survive Neeks," Percy said, twirling riptide in his fingers, "She always does." _but she didn't the last time this happened_ a voice nagged in all of their minds, _she died, remember?_ Nico stood suddenly, "I need to take my mind off this, what do you say to a little sparing in the forbidden forest?" Annabeth shrugged, Percy stood, riptide in hand, "Let's go death boy."

They found a clearing about a mile in and took up fighting stances. Annabeth and Percy temporarily teamed up against Nico so they could have their rematch sooner than they thought. Nico summoned a skeletal warrior to even the playing field and they launched into battle.

Nico and his skeleton managed to gain a little ground at first, with Nico moving with lightning speed and his undead partner having the training of a roman soldier. But Percy and Annabeth had other plans. They let Nico gain a little ground, hoping to wear him out early in the fight to eliminate him as a threat. A tactic that had won both of them many a battle before and that they knew well.

Nico, however, had been present for the countless games of capture the flag and one on one duels in the arena. He knew this tactic, so he held back as well, resolving to play the long game. They fought for hours, hardly tiring. Each of them with only scratches to show for their efforts. Nico smirked when Annabeth called for a water break. Way to be obvious wise girl.

"No water for Percy, unfair advantages and all." Nico said and took a swig of his water.

"Unfair? I think you have it wrong Nico, Percy's powers are just as fair as your's, we could say that summoning the dead is an unfair advantage on you part." Nico scowled but relented and Percy gulped down his water, the few scrapes he did have disappearing along with the hint of exhaustion in his eyes. "Jokes on you Annabeth, you'll have to fight him when you finish with me, then you'll eat your words." Annabeth smirked and took her stance, Percy following suit a moment later. Nico summoned a second skeleton and launched into battle.

It was hours later that Nico managed to overpower the senior heroes. Driving them into a corner and having his skeletons pin them with blades to their throats, "I win." Nico said and released them.

Annabeth let out a low whistle, "You've gotten good Nico." she said appraisingly. He smiled, barely. Percy smirked and held out his hand for Nico to take. He took it and found himself flipped over Percy's shoulder and tossed on his back, "Good fight Nico." Percy said, as if nothing happened and walked off with his arm around Annabeth. Nico followed them a minute later back to the castle, where they showed him where he could sleep in the Slytherin commons.

~oOo~

The next morning Nico woke up to someone shoving him off the couch he had made his bed. "Hey, I was sleeping there." he said as he looked at his attacker. A skinny blond boy with a snarky look on his face. Why not?

Nico scowled at the boy, "I suppose you're Draco." He said and picked his jacket off the ground, now aware of all the eyes belonging to Slytherins getting ready for the day, all trained on him, particularly his exposed arms, which were marked with scars from hundreds of battles fought since he was ten years old, physically anyhow.

"You must be pretty bad with your wand to have that many scars." Draco stated, a bit smugly. Nico raised an eyebrow, "My sister is nearly, if not dead, and you want to taunt me about my magic skills." there was only the tiniest hint of anger under his words, but it was enough for most of the gathered students to avert their eyes and get on with their days. But not Draco. That boy was going to get himself killed.

"You might have been able to help her, had you not refused to use magic of any kind, what kind of muggle school to you attend anyway? And one that has it's own policy for the healing of students? Rubbish if you ask me, I doubt it's actually a real school." Nico kept his face perfectly natural as he pulled on his aviators jacket and strapped his stygian iron sword to his belt.

"If ours is not a real school, then why not go to your headmaster with your suspicions? Stop wasting my time, I've got to go check on my sister, you people have done enough damage to my family as is, and I would hate to inconvenience my father with your nonsense." Nico pushed passed the pure blood and picked a yellow band off the floor. It must have fallen off his wrist while he slept. He tied it back on and straightened it so the little black skull and crossbones with the orange sun behind it was on the top of his wrist.

"That doesn't seem to fit your usual color palette. Was it a gift from your girlfriend." Draco said in a taunting tone, entirely oblivious to the death threat. Nico smirked and turned to face the Slytherin, who was nearly an inch taller than him, "No, boyfriend actually." he said, resting his braceleted hand on the hilt of his sword.

Draco look appalled. He blubbered something about improper and unnatural, the usual garbage. Nico ignored him and made his way out of the room. He went down to the potions class, where Snape's ghost was teaching the class.

He stopped abruptly when he saw the demigod, "My lord," he said, bowing his head, Nico cut him off just as he was about to say something else, "I will not tolerate your presence here much longer Severus, so say your goodbyes, I'll be back when my sister is back to full health or dead, and if she dies," he looked the potions master in the eye, "You will pay dearly." then he dropped into a shadow, leaving the nerry confused magic types to figure out what he meant. And a terrified potions master to complete his lecture.

~oOo~

Nico arrived at camp. Everything was much the same as usual, campers climbing the rock wall or forging weapons, or canoeing, or doing any number of normal, everyday, camp half-blood activities. But if you had been to the camp before, on a normal summer day, than you would be able to sense the difference. The air was heavy with feelings of pity, worry, sorrow, much like the aftermath of a lost battle.

Nico's worry increased and he hurried to the infirmary.

~oOo~

Word spread quickly of Nico's little chat with Snape. The demigods just shook it off when they were questioned, saying that Nico had been grief stricken and angry, that any of the threats he made were just the grief talking. There were rumors of him operating on school grounds as well, but no one dared ask the exchange students about that. Everyone was at least a little more cautious after the war.

Percy was in his bed that night and sleep was pulling at him, the fish in the lake outside were singing lullabies and the squid was humming along, creating a melody that would lull him to sleep even after the worst of battles. When sleep did take him, so did the nightmares.

He was at the ledge again, hanging on to the tiny shelf of rock and Annabeth, she begged him to let her go. He looked up and there was Nico. but instead of agreeing to lead the other to the doors of death, he stands up and starts laughing. Suddenly the rest of the crew was there, laughing with him. A scream broke through the dream and he woke up.

He bolted out of bed and was pounding on the girls dormitories entrance before he even realized what he was doing, knowing for absolute certain even before he was fully awake that the screen was Annabeth's. The door was opened by a bleary eyed girl a moment later and he pushed past her, rushing in and pulling Annabeth into his arms. She was sobbing and muttering in greek, recounting moments from their quests, some of them twisted around, like his dream had been.

He held her tightly and whispered to her in greek, comforting things, the sort of sweet nothings normal couples would take for granted. She clutched at his shirt and hair, eyes still frantic as if she were still in a nightmare. He ignored the other girls in the room for a few minuted, until her sobs quieted enough for him to pick her up and take her to the commons to the girls could get some sleep. He apologised, through the girl who opened the door insisted that it would have been worse if had not come.

Percy carried Annabeth to the commons and curled up with her next to the fire while near silent tear streamed down her face. She told him the dreams then, every horrible detail. She switched between english and greek, telling her about Nix and misery, and the Ari and Bob and the doors. She told him everything, how her dream had been a reel of all the best and worst parts of the wars, but the good parts were twisted into moments more horrible than some of the bad memories. Friends turning on friends, Percy making a different decision after Kronos, Luke sneering at her and telling her that she was nothing, just a worthless runaway.

He held her and listened. Because sometimes that's all you need. Sometimes all you need is for someone to listen to what you have to say, not for them to give their opinions or advice, or to tell you that they understand, but for them to just be there and listen.

~oOo~

Hermione was tearing herself up trying to figure out what Nico had meant. He had said the potion was showing her the truth. But how could that be the truth? Hazel had been perfectly fine, she clearly hadn't been being stoned to death by invisible rocks. Perhaps she had been though. _Maybe,_ Hermione thought, _there was a spell keeping her alive, and the truth potion had torn it down._ No. If there was a spell meant to keep her alive, it wouldn't have been torn down so easily, not with such powerful witches and wizards at her school to cast it.

She looked at the book in front of her. It was a latin to english dictionary. She held her wand to her ear and listened to the recording she had made after the 'new prophecy' had been issued in divination. She couldn't find a way to cast a spell on a spell like this so she had to decode it manually.

She scrawled down the next few words in latin, then translated them below. She had put together a kind of script, showing who said what when. She translated the last few lines and admired her work. She had everything listed out in an orderly list with the speaker underlined after the dialogue,

 _Another prophecy -_ Percy

 _I think so._ \- Annabeth

 _At least this time it doesn't say any of us will die._ \- Percy

 _Been there, done that. No fun._ \- Hazel

half hearted laughs from all of them

 _But why so soon, I mean we just got Leo back! And Calypso just got off her island. I just don't think I can handle another prophecy, those things have done nothing but ruin my life so far._ \- Annabeth

 _You don't suppose we could switch ourselves out for Jason Piper and Leo, do you?_ \- Percy

 _No, we have to see this through._ \- Annabeth

Hermione tried to make sense of it. Apparently they had experience with prophecies, that much was obvious, but she didn't understand the rest of it. Hazel said something about dying, that was what interested her. If Hazel had been dead, or near dead, when the spell was cast to save her life, then that would explain why it had been so weak. No one must have thought to strengthen it when whatever it was that nearly killed her was over.

Hermione, believing she had her answer, stowed the paper with the conversation in her robe and started to put away the dictionary, then thought the better of it. It had taken her forever just to figure out what language they were speaking, she wanted to have a way to translate whatever they said on her at all times.

She flipped to the back of the book and found a translator spell. She quickly cast it on her ears so if she heard either of the remaining exchange students speaking latin it would be instantly translated for her. That way they couldn't hide behind language barriers to keep secrets. Besides, secrets will always be dangerous things.

Hermione tucked the book into one of her large pockets just in case and walked out of the library, still pondering all the other little puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit. _Maybe I'm putting together the wrong picture._ A voice in her head said. Part of her listened, coming up with outlandish theories to make the pieces fit. The other part of her, however, kept itself open, but grounded, unlike the other part of her mind, which was starting to consider aliens as a possible explanation.

She shook her head to clear it and marched down the hall. One thing was for certain, those kids were up to something, they were Slytherins after all. What she couldn't figure out was what or why. She was positive their teacher was in on it, he seemed to know everything there was to know about anything and everything. She wanted to look like that one day, like she had thousands of years of memories in her head, just behind her eyes.

~oOo~

That evening Hermione borrowed Harry's cloak and snuck into the Slytherin commons, where she waited. She tried to follow Annabeth into the girl's room but she failed to get in the room before they slammed shut. So she sat on the floor and waited for something to happen. She didn't have to wait long. A scream rang out through the halls, and Hermione was sure half the castle could hear it.

Hermione had heard people wake up screaming from nightmares before, especially after the war, there was always at least one kid who relived a traumatic event in their sleep and woke the whole dorm with their shrieks. Those screams were of fear and sometimes pain.

Annabeth's screen was different. It was worse. It was a sound of pure, unfiltered, terror. A sound like a heart breaking a thousand times over. Hermione could practically feel the fear and pain in that moment. Whatever it was that that girl had gone through to be able to produce such a sound had to have been hell itself in order to compare.

Percy came sprinting past then he disappeared and all Hermione could hear were muffled sobs for a while until Percy came back, a broken looking Annabeth in his arms. He was whispering something to her but Hermione couldn't hear. She moved over so they could sit by the fire without discovering her and listened.

Much to her dismay, latin wasn't the only dead language they spoke, the exchange students also spoke what sounded like greek as well. They switched between english and greek so she only picked up bits and pieces of the conversation, but it sounded like Annabeth was telling Percy her nightmare.

"...Luke looked at me...golden…" she blabbered in greek for a while and Percy just held her, whispering those little romantic phrases that everyone says but knows they mean nothing, things like 'I love you' or 'you'll be okay' occasionally something in greek then again with the phrases, meanwhile Annabeth kept talking, "Time... the sky...Di Angelo...lotus hotel…" then she broke down for a few minutes, apparently the greek bits meant more than the english ones did.

Annabeth seemed to calm down a bit and she started talking again, talking more in english this time, rather than the occasional word, "I-I was...ghost king...the battle... something was wrong, he looked happy Percy, but not like now but like-like on the bus, our first quest remember? The one you blew up?" Percy laughed through his tears and Hermione realized that he had had a nightmare as well, though clearly not as bad as his girlfriends.

"I remember, I have destroyed a lot of stuff since then." they both laughed, but it was a bit hysterical, "Indeed you have…" she switched to greek and was suddenly crying again. Percy held her tighter and she switched back to the jumbled mix of languages, some of it, Hermione realized, was latin, which was being translated to english through the spell.

"Luke was possessed again, his eyes, oh gods percy _his eyes_ , they were all golden again, but this time he was gone completely and we lost the war. Then… you said yes and left me alone then we were falling again and there were spiders. So many spiders...prophecy...misery...poison, and you were choking her and it was terrifying, Percy, you scared me." He looked uncomfortable but held her closer, "Then Bob…" she choked and said the rest in greek, but whoever 'Bob' was he had done something worth crying about back when Annabeth was...wherever she was dreaming about.

Everything else was in greek and Hermione turned her attention to deciphering what she understood. Percy had scared her. That much was plain. He was apparently choking someone, and it scared Annabeth. The was was surprised Hermione the most though, that anything could scare Annabeth at all. And all that about golden eyes, and again, meaning it happened in real life.

Hermione looked over to see the two of them had fallen asleep in eachothers arms. She stood and left the room, going back to her dorm and planning to return the cloak to Harry the next day, preferably before he noticed she took it. She got to her feet as quietly as possible, managing not to make a sound, and glanced at the entrance.

Draco stood there, a look of longing on his face as he stared at the sleeping couple, both so content in eachothers arms. He sighed and left, accepting that they had something he never would.

Hermione was surprised. Then she cursed herself for being surprised. Of course Draco wanted something like that, didn't everyone. But Hermione knew that those two had been through something that would drive anyone else insane just to forget it. They had seen things that no one understood and done things, she realized, that would make people sick. Why else would they be so good at fighting? Why else would their academy have such an unusual education system? She had seen the effects of war on people, the way that many of her classmates joked more and cared less. She saw the little flashes in their eyes when they remembered something they wanted to forget.

Hermione looked back at the couple, noticing little things she hadn't before. The way both of them had bead necklaces with matching beads, except Annabeth had more. The way where the long sleeves or hems of their pajamas lifted there was alway scar tissue to be seen,

Hermione looked more closely at one on Percy's side where the bottom hem of his shirt lifted just enough to reveal three long, deep looking scars on his side. At first she thought they were from a knife or a sword, which would make sense given their training, but when she looked closer she realized they couldn't be. The three scars were to jagged to be a blade like the ones they had fought with. And it couldn't have been a serrated blade because all of them were identical. _Claws,_ her mind said. _But from what?_ She decided to leave this new mystery for the morning and exited the room.

As soon as he stepped out the door the cloak was ripped off of her. Draco stood there, holding Harry's cloak with his eyebrows raised. "How…" she asked and he scoffed, "Do you think I'm deff? With the two of them sleeping all that noise you were making couldn't have come from them, so I figured one of you nosy lot had an invisibility cloak in there." She had to hand it to Draco, he was no idiot.

"So you decided to wait for me to come out." she said, he nodded and handed the cloak back, "I assume your friends put you up to this." He said, crossing his arms, "No, actually, I came on my own. I don't think they would like me spying on them, not after the whole thing with Hazel." Hermione pulled the cloak around her shoulders, "They think it was my fault, everyone does." "I don't." Draco looked like he wanted to take the words back as soon as they left his mouth. Hermione looked at him curiously. He cleared his throat, "What did you find out, I don't think you were in there just to watch them sleep." his tone was almost teasing, and it was mysteriously lacking in the cruel undertones he was always using.

"Like I would tell you." She said and pulled the hood over her face, "You're a bully Draco, you could use anything I say against me or them, and believe me, they do not need that." she was about to leave when Nico tumbled out of a shadow and fell into the hall. Draco started and looked like he was caught between sneering and saying something. Hermione stayed completely silent, hoping the Draco wouldn't give her away.

"Take that cursed cloak off Hermione, and don't say it Draco if you want to keep your arms." Nico looked like he would pass out before he could do any damage, but Draco wasn't willing to test that theory. "Where are they?" Nico asked, staring directly at Hermione as if there was nothing to keep him from seeing her. She put down the hood, "How…" He glared and she shut her mouth, pointing at the passage, which was shut. He pushed through without saying the password and it let him through. "Hey lovebirds! Get up, we've got to get to camp now!" he shouted and there was the sound of two groggy teenagers trying to untangle themselves and grab their things, "Leave your school bags! Just bring your personal bags, you'll need them, and Percy, please tell me those pajamas have pockets." Percy came back from grabbing his bag and said, "Of course, I make sure everything I own has pockets, "Well you'll need new pajamas after this." Nico said as the three of them walked out into the hall, "Why?" Nico looked suspiciously at the two students who were still standing in the hall, dumbfounded. "I thought you couldn't apparate at hogwarts." Draco said, Nico looked him dead in the eye, "Good thing I didn't then." Annabeth snorted, "You really don't have any subtlety do you ghost king."

He smirked at her and grabbed both her and Percy and dragged them into a shadow. They dropped into it, leaving no trace and using no wands, for all the wizards knew they didn't even bring their wands with.

"Three of seven shall go to a place unknown, but be discovered by a change in tone, two worlds combined once again, will the half bloods again defend." Hermione whispered, "What?" draco asked, still bewildered from the mysterious spell. "That was the prophecy from divination," Hermione's eyes widened, "Nix, falling...oh god." She ran off down the hall, rushing straight to the library and forgetting to put her hood back up.

Draco followed, not entirely sure why. He followed her into the library, where she scoured the shelves, looking for something if particular. She pulled out a book and threw it open on one of the desks. He tried to read it as she flipped through but she was going to fast.

Finally she found what she was looking for and pointed at the picture on the page. It showed a woman in a greek style dress floating across the sky, night following behind her.

"What about it?" he asked and Hermione pulled a piece of paper from her robes. On it was the conversation she had translated.

"This is what the exchange students said after the prophecy in divination." Draco read it over, "So? They say some weird stuff, but what has that got to do with a, mythological night goddess?" Hermione sighed in frustration and explained what she thought she understood Annabeth's nightmare.

"You still haven't explained the goddess." She threw up her hands, "They mentioned Nix by name," She gestured to the top of the page, where the goddesses name was written, "They mentioned falling and there were claw marks-" Draco cut her off, "Wait, _claw marks_?!" she waved him off and continued, "I think they went to taurus, which is basicly greek hell, that would explain everything! The way that they are always keeping secrets, the reason they all are super good at fighting and wandless magic, the scars…" She waited for Draco to understand but he just shook his head, "That's crazy, those are just myths. That would mean that those kids are greek style heroes. I refuse to believe that without more solid proof at least, Hermione." she stared at him for a moment then deflated, "I know, but I'll prove it, you'll see." with that she marched off with the greek mythology book, grabbing a greek to english dictionary on her way.

 **Hey, hope you guys liked the chapter. So I wanted to clear something up. Some of you assumed they they wee there to protect Harry or something, this, however, is not at all the case. The only reason he was brought up at all before the quest is because he is a bit of a celebrity at this point so it would be strange if the new exchange students had no idea who he was. Otherwise they would have just been told that it is a scouting** **mission** **to check up on what happened after the war, because Chiron lost his only contact in the school before the end of the war and was only able to hear whispers in the magic community that the war was over. The demigods are in no way there for the golden trio. I hope I cleared that up.**


	6. Chapter 6

Nico, Percy, and Annabeth dropped out of the shadow of the big house. Nico instantly passed out and the other two held him up, dragging them with him to the infirmary. They attracted interest from the other campers, most of whom were in full battle armor, and a few of them came to take Nico from them. They handed him off and ran the rest of the way, only stopping when they saw Hazel.

She was in a wheelchair outside cabin thirteen, being helped into her armor by Frank, who looked like he really didn't want to be helping her.

"Hazel!" They called in unison, rushing to her side.

"Hey guys, go get into your armor!" She called back. There was a moment of confusion, when the demigods weren't sure weather to run up and hug their friend or follow her orders. They looked at eachother, then ran into their respective cabins, where they armed themselves and pulled on some armor over their pajamas. Percy put on his newly fixed watch, which Tyson had fixed for a fifth time after a particularly brutal round of capture the flag with the Poseidon, Hermes, and Zeus cabin versus everyone else, everyone else won, specifically the Athena cabin, meaning Annabeth.

He rushed back outside a second after Annabeth and they both went to Hazel. "What happened, are you okay?" Annabeth asked, clearly wanting to ask more than that.

"I'm fine, the wheelchair is temporary and I can still ride a horse, I just have a broken ankle on one foot and my other foot was beyond saving." Both of them looked at her feet, noticing for the first time the glint of bronze where her left foot should have been, "I have to stay in the wheelchair so I can get used to my new foot with at least one reliable foot to catch myself." Percy and Annabeth nodded in unison.

"So what's going on that we had to be dragged out of our quest for, not that I'm complaining, but still." Percy asked Hazel, watching the other campers prepare the camp for battle, setting up makeshift infirmaries and weapon stands, setting out snack tables with nectar and ambrosia among other snacks.

"There's an army of monsters headed this way, we don't know who's leading them yet but apparently whoever it is wants the wizards to know about us, they plan to attack Hogwarts as well, Leo is headed there on festus with a couple of campers and the Argo 3, there are about thirty of them, including Piper and Jason. The hunters are here by the way, Thalia is one of them to be sent to Hogwarts. Us four will be going as well, as soon as Mrs. O'leary is ready, I'll be taking Arion." They nodded and Annabeth recapped, "So we just came here to get out armor and gear up and we will go to Hogwarts as soon as we can to protect it from a monster attack that will probably scare the wizards to the point where they will be more of a problem than the monster." Hazel nodded, "On the bright side the battle itself shouldn't be too bad, considering many of the monster we fought in the last war are still regenerating." Annabeth shrugged, "Well that's something."

A few minutes later they were ready to go, Frank got on Arion after helping Hazel up and Percy and Annabeth were on the hellhound, ready to go. They all left the camp in their own way.

~oOo~

Percy and Annabeth melted out of the shadow of a large tree in the forbidden forest. They dismounted and thanked the dog, then sped off, hoping they were soon enough to beat Leo, who would probably cause quite a scene when he flew in on his giant bronze dragon followed by a giant flying warship.

They rushed inside and went to the Slytherin dorms. "Get up!" Percy yelled, waking up the boys as quick as he could, "No time to explain, get your wands, I recommend you stay out of it when they get here but it's best to be armed." Then he rushed and met Annabeth, who had done the same for the girls, "Do you think they'll survive?" Percy asked.

Annabeth looked at him sadly, "Not likely."

~oOo~

After waking up the whole castle they went outside to meet Hazel and frank, who had made it not long after them but waited outside since Hazel could only get around on Arion. "Is everyone awake?" Hazel asked as soon as she saw them.

"Yep, I think so, and Leo?" Percy said, watching the sky

"He'll be here any minute now. Better be ready." they all just stood there, watching the horizon until they saw the glint of bronze approaching the castle.

A crowd had gathered around them asking questions, they mostly ignored them but finally Annabeth stood up on the edge of the bridge where they waited and spoke up, "I know you are all curious why we woke you up at this hour," the crowd hushed, "Tonight someone from our camp came to tell us that your school is going to ba attacked tonight," whispers and a few shouts asking how they could know that, "Our camp has sent reinforcements, they will be arriving here soon. If any of you cast a spell of any kind at them I will personally rip you limb from limb. You all know what happened to Hazel, we don't want anything like that to happen to any of our other friends. None of them will use wands. We don't use wands often at our school and most of us are better without them."

Draco shouted out from the crowd, "How did your camp know about the attack? Because if I was woken for no reason-" Annabeth cut him off, "Yours isn't the only school being attacked!" she took a breath and continued, "Our camp is under attack as we speak, campers are dieing as we speak and you think that I would lie to you?!" She was outraged, "You all are worse than Octavian was! We come here to protect you, to keep the monsters away, but you repay us with suspicion." She threw up her hands and was about to continue her rant when Frank interrupted in a quiet voice so the wizards wouldn't hear, "Annabeth, you aren't thinking clearly. Think, do you really think this helps? They can't help their ignorance any more than you could before you found out. Use that strategic mind of yours and organize them as you would if they were campers. We don't have much time." The demigods all glanced the the horizon, the glint was clearly getting closer.

Annabeth took a series of deep breaths and addressed the crowd again, "I know you want answers but we don't have time to give them so I'll give you orders instead. Most of you have been through a war before so listen carefully. Younger students with little or no combat type magic training go inside and find someplace safe," a bunch of the students went inside, none daring to test her, "The rest of you, back up."

The wizards did as they were told, quizzical looks on their faces. They got their answer soon enough though, when the warship and Festus came close enough to see what they were. There were gasps and many wands were drawn but the demigods held up their hands to signal the wizards to put them away. Festus landed in the newly cleared space and Leo slid off, followed by Jason and Piper.

"Am I late," Leo said with a grin as he hugged Percy, "I haven't seen you forever waterboy, do you have any idea how boring capture the flag is without the Poseidon cabin? REally boring!" Percy laughed and they separated, "Good to see you to supreme commander of the Argo's two and three." Piper piped up (pun totally intended), "I still prefer repair boy." They all laughed and the Argo 3 came up beside the bridge, the demigods all on deck in full armor with weapons strapped to their belts and bows in some of their hands.

"Will!" Percy exclaimed when he saw the boy, having not been expecting him to be there.

"Nico will be here as soon as he wakes up," Will said, swinging over the rail onto the bridge, "Where do you want us? We go half the Apollo cabin, I have no idea how many Hermes campers, the Hephaestus cabin, some Nematics and Nike campers and, like, three fourths of the Hecate cabin." Percy let out a low whistle, "Apparently we got some hunters to, wherever they are." right on cue a silver arrow whizzed by his head, getting gasps and drawn weapons from both the demigods and wizards, "There they are." Percy said and turned to Thalia.

"You're late cuz." He said, putting his hands in his pockets, "Sorry, had to fight off a splinter group from the army, we've got our hands full with this one kelp head." She said while her hunters examined them. One of them whispered something to her and she nodded, "We'll take the south side, send some campers, maybe six or so, keep the witches and wizards out of the way." and with that she disappeared, Percy smirked and turned to Frank, "Wait, What about the Romans?" He asked.

"They'll send some people to Camp Half-Blood, but they would never make it in time to get here." Percy nodded and turned to the Wizards, "You folks better stay away from the south end of the building, if Thals don't want you there you had better stay away. Gods help you if you also happen to be a boy when you wander over there." He warned and turned to the demigods, "The usual for you kids, archers, that includes you Frank, keep a good distance and kill off as many of them as you can before engaging in single combat, okay," nods from the archers, including Frank, "good, now get in position so Leo can pilot that ship someplace it would be more useful," as soon as he saw the grin on Leo's face he amended, "Like up in the sky where he will not use the ballista to destroy the school grounds unless he absolutely has to."

Leo pouted and jumped over the rail onto the ship. The demigods cleared off and he piloted it upwards until he had an eagle eye view of the castle and the surrounding lands. He searched those lands and paled. Festus flew up and picked him up, flying him back down.

"The army is getting close, it looks like they attracted attention from the mortals though, there are news helicopters and vans following them." He said this quietly so only the seven could hear him, "I don't know about you but I'm not sure the mist will obscure something as big as a full on battle." They all looked worriedly in the direction Loe had said the bulk of them were coming from, "The wizards will have questions after this," Leo said, "They will want answers." Annabeth shrugged, "We don't have to give them." Leo grinned, "Let's kill us some monsters!" He yelled and started shouting orders at his siblings, who followed his instructions, "And I want some Hermes kids in the Argo threes!" He yelled after giving his orders.

Travis and Connor grabbed one of the unclaimed kids, a girl around ten, and jumped on Festus, who carried the three of them up to the warship. In no time they had set up a perimeter around the school with the bulk of their defences where the fighting was sure to be the heaviest.

Draco marched up to Percy and said, "Who are you to be giving orders?! You are just and exchange student, you don't go here! This is _our_ school! We have defended it before, for all we know you've never seen a real battle in you life! We don't know you. You claim to have gone through something super tramatic, but you won't even tell us what it is! How are we to know you aren't the ones attacking? How are we to know you even know anything about war!" Percy looked him dead in the eye, "You want to know what I've been through? Fine. Go fetch something to let you see my memories, perhaps then you will find a little decency in yourself to keep your opinions to yourself." THe seven gasped, "No, Percy, Chiron said-" "Does it look like I care! This was supposed to be a simple scouting mission! Go to the school, check on the effects of the war, go home and start college in new rome. That was supposed to be how it went. Now we have another war on our hands! Another prophecy and everything! I refuse to help the gods beyond this, one battle," He looked away from Annabeth and at the sky, "You hear me! I'm done!" then he stormed off with Draco looking after him for just a second, then rushing into the school to retrieve whatever it was he had in mind to get a peek at Percy's memories.

Draco ran into Hermione on his way to Mcgonagall's office. She grabbed him by the arm, "Where are you headed off to? Everyone is getting ready for the battle." He just pushed her off him and continued his running. She chased after him and stood behind him when he pounded on the headmaster's door.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Hermione asked just before the door swung open.

"Headmaster, the school is about to be attacked and I need the pensieve." She looked bewildered for a moment then said, "Okay, okay, Hermione please explain, Draco Why do you need the pensieve?"

"I need it because the exchange students left, then came back with a warship and a dragon and a whole bunch of heavily armed teenagers. But they aren't the ones attacking, they came to warn us and," his tone became a little sarcastic, " _protect_ us. I need the pensieve to see in there are telling the truth, Percy offered and I don't think he'll do that again." the headmaster nodded and let him take the bowl while Hermione explained further.

He was on his way back when Hermione caught up with him, "I'm going to see too." She said, "No, I don't think he'll like that, I mean, you did blatantly spy on him." She huffed, "Well you're not exactly on his good side either. If he says no I'll go but I want to see what he has to show." Draco shrugged, "You can give it a shot, might as well bring the rest of your group, if you're dead set on making him refuse." she glared at him and ran off to find her friends.

The wizards met the seven in the room of requirement, which Hazel just kinda walked into, now on a crutch walking on her false foot. (Arion had left before the fight to take care of something that he wouldn't tell Percy). The room had a circle of couches around a table, where the demigods were standing.

"I thought it would only be Draco." Annabeth said when she saw them.

"I thought so too." Percy said, clearly still angry.

"Let's get this over with, just remember what we talked about." Jason said, sitting on the couch.

The others followed suit and pulled out their wands, "So how does it work?" Piper asked, holding the wand like it was a gun she wasn't sure was loaded or not.

"You just think about the memory you want to put in, bring it to the front of your mind, then use your wand to pull it out," Harry said, examining the seven.

"Okay," Leo said and put his wand to his head, pulling out a memory and putting it in the bowl. The wizards all entered it and watched what Leo had decided to show them to prove that they had battle experience.

~oOo~

Harry entered the memory and it slowly came into focus. They were in a warehouse of some sort, there were three three big ugly cyclopes were sitting around a fire and two forms they recognized as Piper and Jason. All of them watched as Leo reprogrammed the robotic arms and outsmarted the cyclopes and freed his friends.

The wizards were puzzled when several parts went blurry and inaudible, as if Leo was trying to hide some part of the memory. Harry stored this away, at first assuming that it was some kind of glitch or something.

They got out of the memory and Jason went next, showing them a memory of some kind of battle game, clearly before he met the others. Annabeth kept whispering in his ear, telling him what he should have done instead. Percy snickered when he apparently won the game, finding something funny that Harry couldn't figure out.

Next was Piper, who tried to resist at first, then relented, telling the wizards exactly how rude it was to force her to show them anything. She pulled out a memory and they watched it. Her was the worst yet. At least half of what was said was fuzzed out and you couldn't tell what was happening for half the time. But, as far as Harry could tell, it was her memory of getting trapped in a well with Jason and Percy, where they used some kind of spell to clear out some nasty, oily looking water that threatened to drown them.

"What was that about?" Ron asked, "I mean, I know you almost drowned, but what about all those fuzzy bits?" Piper smiled, "You don't want to know about those." She said and they believed her, "Right, I don't want to know." Ron said and Jason smiled at Piper, "You got better at that beauty queen." She punched him playfully, "I had to didn't I." they were talking in latin, but Harry had been told by hermione about their tendency to speak in other languages, so the golden trio and Ginny had all put spells on their ears so they could understand. No one told Draco though, so he was just staring at them blankly.

Frank showed them another of those war games, then it was Hazel's turn. Hermione spoke up, "Show us why the truth potion did that to you." She requested, earning glares from everyone of the seven, each of which seemed to be imagining very creative ways to kill her.

"I-I-" Hazel stuttered, looking to the others for help, Frank saved her, "She will not. I won't let her relive that, I've seen it and none of you need to know." His tone removing all hope for argument. Hazel gave him a grateful look and tucked herself further into him.

That left Percy and Annabeth. They shared a look with such an array of emotions that none of the wizards could find reason in it. "I'll do it Annabeth." Percy said at last.

"Percy, they might not be able to handle it." Annabeth had switched to greek.

"They wanted to see it, if they can't handle it then they have no right to ask for it. We warned them that it was bad, they heard you scream, they know it will be bad." Annabeth gave him a saddened look, "Okay seaweed brain, if they want to see the worst of it, I'll make sure they see the worst of it, I'll make sure they never doubt how dangerous we are." There was a scary glint in her eye that made the wizards cringe, all of them positive that it was for them.

She pulled out a few memories and dropped them in the bowl, gesturing to it with a sweep of her hand, "Enjoy." She said, the look on her face making them all positive that none of them would enjoy this.

They entered the memory and were suddenly in a dark place. They saw Percy holding Annabeth as they dangled off the ledge, Nico above them completely helpless. They said something, but it was fuzzed out. Then Percy and Annabeth dropped into the darkness.

They watched the fall, then felt the misery and hopelessness of the river Cocytus, the burning taste of the Phlegethon. Then there was a skip and then the two of them looked like they had been through a battle and walking along, breathing the acidic air as they trekked through the hellish place. They watched some of the battle with the Air, then it skipped again.

They saw Percy and Misery. The look in his eye as he learned he could control the poison, the way he seemed to become part of it as he choked the woman in front of him. In the background Annabeth looked horrified, she called his name over and over, finally managing to get his attention. He broke out of his trance, looking disgusted and horrified at the look of terror in his girlfriend's face. The memory skipped.

They were in a sort of large cave, Percy and Annabeth looked like zombies as they trailed a giant man in a janitor's uniform with a kitten on his shoulder through a gathering of all kinds of monsters. Harry's eyes landed on the chained down elevator doors. That was strange, even by magic standards. And the fact that they looked like the elevator doors from the empire state building made it just that much worse. He had only seem pictures of those doors before but he was sure they were the same ones.

The wizards watched all the way through to the appearance of Tartarus himself, but they couldn't see most of what followed, only able to see everything once they got to the doors, where they watched Bob sacrifice himself to get them out alive. They witnessed the heartbreaking promise to tell the stars hello for the giant man as he held down the button for them. The memory ended with the two of them tumbling out of the elevator, catching a glimpse of Hazel fighting a giant man shrouded in shadow.

Draco wasn't in the least satisfied. "Who was that Hazel was fighting at the end, why wouldn't you let us see so much? What could you possibly have to hide?" Draco challenged, poking his finger in Percy's chest.

"How about you show us your whole life story!" Percy shot back and he and his friends left to join the battle, which was nearly arrived. Harrys eye caught on Hermione, who had a look of concentration on her face, like she was figuring out a particularly difficult puzzle.

"What'r ya thinking 'mione?" Ron asked, seeing the look on her face.

"I think I've figured them out." She stated and left, off to the library just before a battle.

 **Hey, hope you like that. I decided to let Hazel live because, well, she is one of my favorites to write. Anyway. Let me know what you think, and I know that there are errors with spelling and spell check, I just DO NOT have time to go back and correct those errors. Keep in mind, this is a sort of warm up/cool down/brain break for me. I am writing a book on top of this. And because I go to a project based school, it's homework. So I have deadlines to meet and other things to do. I apologize for the mistakes though, I will try to catch them as they come up but I cannot go back and search for them. I'm sorry.**

 **Let me know if you have any suggestions for me regarding where the story goes, I brought out dark Percy for a bit, let me know if you ant to see him more or if he should go back into hiding. Also, when do you think Hermione should become certain, I think I made it clear that she is fairly sure, but needs confirmation. Should I let her have it by having her figure it out, overhear a conversation or something, or if the demigods should tell the whole school before she can figure it out. I'm not even sure if I'll have the school be let in, or just the golden trio and Ginny. Let me know your opinions, also SOLANGELO WILL SHOW UP. Okay, sorry about that, but they will and it will be adorable.**


	7. Chapter 7

The army arrived.

The seven joined the ranks and fought alongside the other heroes with so much skill and experience, so in sync, that the wizards were to stunned to help at first. Only a few of the Hecate campers used wands at all against the mix of greek monsters, which were bound to haunt the wizards nightmares, and evil witches and wizards.

"Annabeth!" Percy screamed twisting so his shield faced her. She nodded and ran at him while he knelt and angled the shield. She used it as a springboard and launched over a trio of emposi, slashing their throats before her feet touched the ground.

Hazel and frank fought side by side, Hazel on Arion and Frank as an elephant, smashing through the ranks. Piper charmspeak as many of the troops as she could, convincing them to jump off the bridge or into an awaiting demigods sword. Jason fought from the air, taking out as many wizards on brooms as he could while he used his own broom, mostly just for show.

The fighting thinned out and soon the demigods were spreading to the other sides of the castle, by now the children of Hermes had started using the array of weapons on the Argo 3 to protect the areas where the ranks were too thin.

Percy and Annabeth made their way to help the hunters while elephant Frank and Hazel continued to fight off the last of the monsters and witches.

Thalia was fine. The hunters were taking heavy fire from an array of spells and different monsters, and completely owning them. Thalia herself was fighting a pair of Drake with six of her hunters when the campers arrived. Percy let out a low whistle, "Damn, she got good didn't she." Annabeth nodded in agreement as she stabbed a monster into dust.

They eventually drove the dwindling army into a retreat and regrouped at the bridge.

"So what would you rank that, I'd say about a six, I mean I had a better fight in Rome," Jason said when they met up, "You remember the one Percy, in the colosseum?" Percy nodded, "Compared to that this was like a five, maybe a four." They laughed as they helped the wounded campers.

Will and Nico eventually joined them at the school entrance, with McDonald's. They handed out happy meals while recounting their battles. As it turns out Nico had joined the battle about halfway through and unleashed a wave of death that sent half of the remaining ranks screaming for their mommies.

The seven laughed as Nico shrugged, "They wounded Hazel, I was not okay with that." That got them laughing harder until they were finally stopped by the wizards, who wanted answers.

Chiron, who had joined the battle earlier where there were no wizard fighters in centaur form and was not back in wheelchair mode, took charge almost immediately, shooting the demigods a look that said keep your mouths shut and they wisely obeyed.

"Calm down, calm down, you will get answers presently," Chiron said, raising his hands for silence, "I understand that you do not get attacked by those kinds of monsters here very often here, but they are the reason I run a combat academy!" the last of the whispering died out, "We get attacked by those monster on a regular basis in America, so my students know how to deal with these combat situations better than anyone here would."

A voice, Draco, spoke out from the crowd, "How did you lot know to come here so soon?" The question was as much an accusation as a question, but Chiron's face betrayed nothing in the way of annoyance, if anything he looked like he was a teacher again, taking a question from a curious student, "We have a highly advanced divination course at my academy, and we find that our students predictions are never wrong. The particular student who foresaw this was Rachel, a prodigy of sorts in the divination field and among the bravest of my students," That earned chuckles from Percy, who remembered her hitting a certain titan lord in the face with a blue plastic hairbrush.

Chiron was stifling a chuckle as well, but his face only betrayed a slight smile, earning curious looks from the wizards. Percy leaned over to Thalia and whispered, "She showed us some dam bravery didn't she," Thalia didn't even try to stifle the laugh that burst from her, which set the rest of the seven off as well, all remembering the funny story of Rachel Elizabeth Dare hitting Kronos in the eye with her blue plastic hairbrush. That, of course, set off some of the demigods and soon most of the army had tear brimming their eyes as they remembered all the funniest moments of the second titan war.

Chiron held up his hands again and the laughter quieted to just a sort of undertone, "I know you all remember that incident quite clearly. And I understand that it was quite the hilarity in the midst of a war, but if you please keep your laughter to a minimum it would be appreciated," He turned back the the wizards, who looked more confused than ever, and continued, "A representative from our camp called with a warning and sent reinforcements, as it turns out a few separate branches were contacted as well, seeing as we have the hunters here. Respect them, they are highly trained and deadly, more so than many of my campers," He looked pointedly at a group of boys who were obviously checking out a few of the hunters, "And boys, they are not interested, so don't try unless you want a broken bone." That, unfortunately, only got them to check the girls out slightly more discreetly.

Chiron shrugged it off, he had warned them, and continued, "I will not take responsibility for any boy who respects a hunter in any way, I am warning you now that you may not get out of that alive," He ignored the horrified looks from teachers and the snarky looks for boys as he said, "I will explain further to teachers only, if they wish to share with the students after they may." He waved the teacher inside and they followed him down the halls, presumably to the professor's office.

Hermione approached the seven, Will, Nico, and Thalia. "Um, I was wondering if I could talk to one of you privately." She asked, getting dark and suspicious looks from the demigods, who whispered in Greek and latin amongst themselves. Hermione cursed herself for not refreshing the translation spells before approaching them.

"Fine," Thalia said, "I'll go, but just know I won't hesitate to break your arms." Hermione nodded muttering, "Duly noted," under her breath while leading the scary girl away from the others, this would be harder than she thought. With any of the seven she had seen their memories, she knew at least moderately what their fighting style was and what hid behind their eyes, though she suspected they kept the worst of it to themselves.

"Thalia, right?" Hermione asked when they reached a secluded corner inside the school.

"Yes," Thalia responded, playing with her knife. Hermione had to stop herself from gulping, though that didn't seem to matter. Thalia knew just how nervous she was.

"What do you want," Thalia asked, examining the blade, then looking the witch in the eye. Hermione had to force herself to calm down, if she showed weakness now, in front of Thalia, she would lose her only chance to do this.

"What are you?" She asked as smoothly as she could manage, which was about as smooth as a train wreck. Thalia played dumb, "I don't know what you mean," She was a lioness, playing with her pray. Hermione steeled herself, determined to find out the truth.

"I mean," She said, taking the knife from the hunter's hands, "Are you a demigod." Thalia looked genuinely surprised, then angry. Hermione was suddenly regretting every decision she made that led her to this moment.

"Now whatever gave you that idea." She said, her voice deathly calm as she took back her dagger in a single smooth movement and stepped toward the witch. Hermione held her ground, determined not to screw this up, despite the fact that every nerve in her body seemed to charge with electricity, and not in a good way.

"I have seen and heard things that lead me to believe that you and your friends are the half human children of the Greek gods." Thalia smirked, only the slightest hint of humor in her eyes, "Clever girl, who have you shared this theory with, may I ask." Thalia wasn't backing down, and neither was Hermione. "Just Draco, but he only knows I thought you were Greek heroes, not demigods." Thalia looked up, as if thinking something over, then stared directly into Hermione's eyes. Damn those eyes were unnerving.

"Swear upon the river Styx that you will not share this with anyone unless I or Chiron personally give you permission." Hermione hesitated, "I swear." Thunder rumbled overhead and a shiver ran down Hermione's spine.

They rejoined the others and Thalia explained in Greek what had happened. The rage in most of their eyes was enough to make Hermione run and hide.

"So that was an oath, I thought it was either that or Zeus was angry at something again." Leo said to break the tension, "I wouldn't be surprised." Percy commented, earning a few laughs and a rumble of thunder, "Told ya." He said and ate his cheeseburger.

Nico stood with Will and they muttered excuses as they left. Hermione seemed to be missing some sort of inside joke, because there will little smiles on all of the demigods faces as they left the group.

"So," Hermione said and all of the demigods turned back to her, "Who are all of your parents on the, you know, immortal side." She whispered the last part, hoping no one would hear.

Percy shrugged and went first, "I will not go into my full title or we would be here all day, but I'm the son of Poseidon." Annabeth went next, "Athena," Then Leo, "Hephaestus," Piper went next, "Aphrodite," Hermione looked at her quizzically, "Wouldn't that make you, like, one of those dumb pretty girls?" All of the demigods got super defensive and started talking at once but Piper silenced them with a hand, "Sit." She commanded and Hermione found herself obeying, it was as if her life depended on it, "Give me your wand." She handed it over.

The spell wore off and Hermione got back to her feet as quickly as possible, "What…" Piper gave her a sweet smile and gave her wand back, "Power from my mom, it's call charmspeak, I tell you what to do and you can't resist doing it." Hermione was speechless, but the demigods all got over their amusement and continued, Thalia went next, "Zeus, if you hear any of these idiots call me 'pine cone face' or anything involving pine trees let me know so I can throw a lightning bolt at them." Percy flinched, "That hurt Thals." She punched him, "You threw the creek at me, we're even." He shrugged and they continued.

Frank went next, "I am the legacy of Poseidon and the son of Mars." Hermione gave him a quizzical look, "But Mars is the roman version," He explained, "Both the Greeks and Romans exist, their different though, like, Jason and Thalia are siblings, but Jason is the son of Jupiter while Thalia is the daughter of Zeus. It's more complicated than I can explain right now, but just know that they both exist," Hermione nodded as if she understood, even though she was clueless, and they went on.

Hazel went next, "I figure I should explain why your truth potion had that strong of an effect on me. I'm the daughter of Pluto. When I was a kid my mom got in with some bad people, they took over her and they made me do some bad things. When I died I was offered elysium, but I took asphodel to save my mom from the fields of punishment. Nico found me there later on, when the doors of death were open, and took me back to the mortal realm. I ended up a part of the prophecy of seven and saved the world with these people." Hermione was stunned. She knew Harry had resurrected himself, but this was different, she had a coherent memory of being dead for a period of time, then being resurrected by...Nico. "Who is Nico's parent?" She asked before anyone else could talk, "Hades, and Will is the son of Apollo, though I suppose he's Lester now isn't he?" Percy said with a tinge of humor, Annabeth responded, "He's Apollo again seaweed brain, he's a god again now." Hermione just accepted that she wouldn't understand half of anything these kids said.

"Hazel's not the only one who was dead." Leo said, earning some punches and eyerolls, "What?!" Hermione exclaimed and Leo smirked, "I died when I blew up Gaia. I used the physician's cure to resurrect myself and get back to Calypso." Hermione didn't ask and he didn't tell. They finished introducing themselves and a few of the other campers, and telling her a few conversation points to avoid, such as the name Luke in general, or asking the Hephaestus kids if they were fireproof. Leo had to then explain that he was the only one who was, then demonstrate his pyrokinesis.

~oOo~

Draco watched Hermione talk to the 'campers'. He couldn't hear what they were saying but he assumed that Hermione had finally gotten the answers she wanted. He wondered what they were, then blushed as his mind wandered into off limits areas. No Draco, he scolded himself, She has a boyfriend, and why would she want you anyway, you've been nothing but a jerk to her. He forced his thoughts back on their usual track, how to get what he wanted. He considered questioning her, but decided against it, he didn't want to do any more damage to her than he needed to. He decided to get the answers directly from the kids.

He decided on one of the two that left. They were isolated at the moment and looked less frightening than the others. The dark one though, Nico, he was scary. Draco would have to get them separated, then he would corner Will and get him to drink a truth potion. That would leave him at his mercy for the next few minutes.

Draco walked into the castle and searched for the boys. He looked in every place he could think of where any pair of boys would go to hang out but found nothing. He heard some sounds from a closet as he passed it in the hall and stopped. He listened for a second. Was that...Italian...Greek? He opened the door to find the two boys, tangled in each others arms. He thought he saw tear stains on Nico's cheeks but he melted into a shadow before Draco could be sure.

Will looked at him darkly, "What do you want." he spat. Draco shot a spell out of his wand and Will went rigid, then collapsed. Draco made quick work of dragging him into an empty classroom and sealing them in, blocking all sounds. He used a spell to allow Will to move from the neck up. What followed was a string of very creative curses in a mixture of languages that Draco dared not repeat to anyone ever.

"You done?" Draco asked when Will stopped. The camper looked like he wanted to say more but stopped himself, seeming the realize how pointless it was, "Good, I need you to drink this," Draco said, holding up a vial of truth potion.

"No." Will said, finalizing it.

Apparently Draco didn't get the message, "You don't understand, I need you to drink it willingly or I'll have to make you." He said with a barely detectable gulp, he hadn't been planning on threatening him with an unforgivable curse.

"No." Will repeated. Draco made good on his threat.

Once Draco had gotten Will to drink the potion he released the spell and stepped back. The look of pure hatred in the boy's eye was too much, Draco looked away.

"First question, this is stupid, are you a Greek hero?" He asked, expecting a no. Instead he got the truth.

"Yes."

 **Hey, let me know what you think. I was considering killing off one of our beloved characters, tell me what you think of that, and who you think should go. So far I have an idea of who, how, and why. I'll let you get to guessing.**


	8. Chapter 8

"What?!" Draco demanded, whipping around to face the captured boy.

"You heard me." Will said, clearly uncomfortable.

Darco ran a hand through his hair whispering, "I can't believe this...but how...why?" He turned back to Will,

"What do you mean, parity." Will tried to resist the potion, but he finally failed,

"We train as heroes at our camp." He clamped his mouth shut. Draco wasn't satisfied,

"Why?" He asked, stepping closer, unable to mask the curiosity in his eyes.

"We have to." Will said, then muttered what sounded suspiciously like a string of greek curses under his breath.

"Why would anyone have to do that?" Draco asked, sitting across from the boy on the floor.

"Because we have to protect ourselves from the monsters." Will spat, his glare like an inferno in his eyes.

Draco averted his eyes and asked, "Why would you have to do that, it's not like they would attack all the time, and you all are so young. Why not leave the fighting to the adults?" Will's humorless laugh sent chills down Draco's spine.

"Most of us don't live that long." Draco's eyes widened and he made the mistake of looking Will in the eyes. His eyes may as well have been the sun itself. The glare of hatred in them made Draco want to die many times over. Guilt ran through his body. He wanted to let the boy go. He hated himself, he hated music and poetry and everything beautiful in the world. He hated the sun. He deserved to be infected with the most painful of diseases and left to die. Then he looked away.

The guilt went away. Mostly. He gulped. Will smirked.

"You felt it didn't you." Will said, a statement, not a question. Draco didn't answer and asked his next question,

"Why would the monsters target children. And what _are_ the monsters anyway." Will's face darkened and he flexed his jaw, trying to keep the answers in.

"The monster are," He clamped his mouth shut, "They target children because they can, we are defenceless then. If they only attacked adults they would never kill anyone." Draco's eyebrows drew together in confusion, "Why would you be that much more powerful as adults?" He asked, knowing the answer, to a degree.

"We will have had time to train, to master our powers." His mouth once again clamped down on his words and Draco had to drag them out of him, "What powers?" He had seen them on the battlefield, very few used wands at all. If they used magic it was mostly wandless or from enchanted weapons, not wands.

"The powers we inherit." Draco opened his mouth to respond but just then a voice behind him spoke up, "What. Did. You. Do. To. Him." A shiver ran down his spine, Nico.

"How did you get in here, I sealed the room?" He asked, whipping around with his wand ready. Nico was behind him, a black sword in hand and a deadly look on his face. He had no armor, but Draco knew then that he would lose. Just the look on the skinny emo boy's face made him want to run to his mommy. His hand shook, ever so slightly.

"I wanted to get in." Was the only explanation he got.

"God's I love you." Will said, pulling himself to his feet, the spell apparently worn off. Draco's confusion was overshadowed when the boy ran at him. Nico charged, cutting his wand in half before Draco could fire off a single spell, and pinning him to the wall with the shadowy blade at his neck.

"You will explain," Nico growled, "Or I will not hesitate to send you to my father."

"Nico, don't," Will said from the other side of the room, "He only wanted answers to a few questions, I'm fine. Do not kill him." He enunciated the last sentence, as if he were a parent telling their child not to touch a fragile plate. Nico gave Draco one last glare and dropped him. "Next time you try something like that. I will have your head." Then he ran to Will, wrapping his arms around the boy as if he couldn't live without him.

~oOo~

That night the campers slept outside, a few in the Argo 3, which was about half the size of a helicarrier, and some in tents or just under the stars. The hunters set up camp in their enchanted tents a distance away from the others, but a few girls went over to chat.

Leo stood at the helm of his ship. The masthead was a replica of Festus, but it wasn't alive like he was, it was just a regular machine. He watched Festus flying through the air with a few campers who had wanted to ride him. He sighed. Calypso was at camp with Juniper. The two had become friends pretty quickly and Leo hadn't wanted to interrupt girls night to announce his quest. He had told an Aphrodite camper to tell her later and left. He missed her.

"Yo Leo!" Jason called, running over, "What's up?!" Leo plastered on a smile, "Hey superman," He said and swung over the rail onto the bridge.

"You wanna join the school? I bet I could get us in, they have this sport here with broomsticks where you fly around and there are these balls and…" he stopped, "Something's bothering you." He said, fixing his glasses, "What is it?" Leo took a deep breath, "I didn't say goodby to Calypso. I know it's kinda silly, but I still could have died and I never would have said goodby." Jason put an arm around his friend and they sat down, "She will forgive you, you know that. You died for her. _You_ went back to that island for her, no one before you did that. You were the first one to come back." Leo laughed half heartedly, "You know you just dissed Percy right?" They shared a laugh and Jason got up, "You should head back in the morning with the others, I'll stay a little longer with the hunters, to say goodby to Thals."

They exchanged goodnights and went to bed, Leo still haunted by his choice. His small, insignificant, choice, that still managed to haunt him to his very core. _Why?_ Because he _could_ have died, and just the possibility of that, of him leaving her like every other boy to set foot on her island, to die without her knowing where he was or even when it happened. To have left her like that would have been the ultimate betrayal as far as Leo was concerned. He didn't have pleasant dreams that night, but then again, what demigod ever did.

~oOo~

Hermione mulled over what she had learned in her head. She had a feeling that if she told anyone bad things would happen. Thunder didn't follow just any oath. She took out her wand and practiced a levitation spell on a stray dagger, which had been left by one of the demigods in the hall. The spell bounced off the blade and hit a pebble, sending it floating to the ceiling. Apparently the enchanted bronze could not only deflect but also change spells ever so slightly, severing the spell from the caster.

She looked at it with interest, picking it up gently. The handle had a leather grip, intricately woven to depict a great battle, with different colored leathers bringing out the figures of human looking people and monsters. The humans, she guessed, were the gods. She identified a few, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, a girl who looked to be around thirteen whom she guessed was Artemis, and Ares. She didn't recognize the rest of them, but all of them looked powerful. The design continued onto the blade, fading into a scene with a boy who looked suspiciously like Percy, standing over a blond boy with a knife in his hand, ready to stab himself.

She gasped and dropped the knife when she saw the entire scene play out, the image on the blade moving in a repeating loop. She saw the boy hurt Annabeth while he battled Percy, his eyes going from gold to blue. She watched him take the knife and drove it into his body.

"Luke." Annabeth said, startling her.

"He was a friend...before," She shook her head as if the clear it and turned back to Hermione, "He found me when I ran away, protected me. He got angry at his dad and made some bad choices. He became...something else...he changed," She took a shaky breath, "That dagger was mine, he gave it to me when he and Thalia found me with a promis. He promised that we would be a family, that we would protect each other. When he hurt me, it let him gain control. The prophecy was supposed to be about Percy, 'A hero's soul cursed blade shall reap' but it turns out it was about him, the blade was cursed because of his broken promise, and he was a hero." Her eyes were closed, as if remembering. When she opened them there was a kind of sadness in them Hermione could only imagine. The kind of sadness that came from losing a family, and from being betrayed, all at once.

"What had he become?" Hermione asked quietly, as if a loud noise would break the warrior in front of her.

"A monster." She whispered back and gently took the knife from Hermione, walking down the hall toward the Slytherin girls dorms.

~oOo~

Nico was sleeping next to Will, traveling through the dream world. He sifted through the dreams of campers, filled with monsters and memories, and through the dreams of monsters. The monsters dreams were the most scary. Not because they showed the demigods losing, but because they showed them winning. Seeing himself and his friends the way the monster saw them, as monsters themselves, was truly terrifying. He felt the monsters pain as they slowly pulled themselves back together after being killed, their suffering as they went through Tartarus, and their resentment as they did it all again.

Nico stopped on one monster in particular. This one had most interesting dreams. It was an empousa, but that wasn't the interesting part. This one dreamed of it's master. The monster he recognized as Kelly stood in a large stone room like a cave with hundreds of monsters behind her.

"Master," she said, stepping forward, toward the obsidian throne in front of her, "Are you sure it's a good idea to attack the wizarding world, I mean, I'm all for a good fight, but I prefer to kill demigods to puny legacy's who think their special." the figure in the throne, who was clad in an array of colored robes that hid any possible way to identify them, spoke in a muffled voice, that somehow carried further all the way over the crowd, "That," the enormous room went silent, "is precisely why we have to attack." murmuring broke out over the crowd. Kelly picked at her fingernails, "I don't follow."

The figure got up and the murmuring stopped, "They think they are special. We need to show them that there are those who are more powerful than them. I made sure that the demigods will get a forewarning so they can send troops there. The wizards will feel threatened, and the demigods will hesitate to reveal themselves. This will be their undoing. The wizards will feel threatened, they are just like animals when that happens. They will attack and the demigods will defend, this will nearly wipe out the wizards and weaken the demigods, then we will attack. Then, and only then, will we have a chance at winning."

There was an uproar of applause. Kelly just gave a pleased smile. The cloaked figure continued, holding up colorful arms, "I was part of the last war! I have seen their 'seven' in action. I know their power and I know that we do not stand a chance, not with the greek and roman alliance. We need to weaken them and this is how!" More cheering. The dream changed to Kelly killing Annabeth in a particularly gruesome way and Nico bolted upright, walking Will.

"What happened?" Will asked, fully alert, "Are we under attack, what did you dream, are you okay?" Nico held up a hand to silence him and stood, Will following a second later."What is it Nico?" He asked, more gently.

"I saw our enemy." He said as he pulled on a shirt. They had been sleeping in an empty storage closet in a remote corner of the castle. Will followed him silently, knowing he would say what he needed to.

"I never saw his, or her, face but I know their plan. That want the wizards to attack us when we don't tell them who, or rather, what we are. They want us to get into a war and obliterate them, then they will come in and strike us while we're weak." WIll nodded, "So what do you propose we do?" He asked, knowing full well what Nico would say, "I say we reveal ourselves, they do have godly blood and we need to catch our enemy off guard. We need an alliance _now_ if we fight the wizards, we will win, but it will be taxing. I need to talk to Chiron, you go wake the wizards, tell them to gather in the great hall, send Percy and Annabeth to get the campers and the hunters." Will nodded and left while Nico sped up, rushing into Chiron's office.

Chiron was awake, shooting a bow at a target he had set up on the ground outside his window. "Chiron!" Nico shouted as he burst in, out of breath, "We need to tell the wizards who we are, I'll explain on the way to the great hall, everyone should be gathering there now." Chiron gave him a stiff nod and followed him out the door. He tried to explain Kelly's dream as best he could as he walked next the the wheelchair bound centar.

Chiron agreed when he finished as they reached the great hall. They pushed open the doors and went up to the front, motioning the demigods to follow. They did, hesitantly. Nico spoke up, "I know what our enemies plan is." This brought an uproar from the wizards, who assumed that he and his friends were working with them.

Piper shouted over them, "SHUT UP!" they obeyed immediately. There was a moment of dead silence before Nico continued, "They want you to get suspicious of us, to attack us. They want a war to break out between us and for us to win," he said, gesturing to the demigods assembled behind him in what passed for a war formation among the greeks. That thought made a smile just barely tug at the edges of his lips.

The wizards were shouting again, this time in offence, "Come on, if you knew even half of what we went through you would run for cover." Jason stated, making them all shut up once again for Nico to finish, "They wanted us to be weakened enough for them to stand a chance at winning. This person was a part of our last war, they know how strong we are, especially now, and they don't want to attack us head on in fear of the seven." That got grim laughs from everyone, especially the seven, "They wanted us to keep a secret." He said when everyone quieted down got him and uproar from the demigods, "NO!" "We can't!" they screamed. Chiron managed to get them under control.

Nico turned to the demigods, "If we don't tell them a war _will_ break out. Do you want that? So soon after the last one? Leo just got back! We don't want anything like that again do we? We have fought for so long. We fought so many creatures from all the layers of Tartarus. We don't need another war. Even if it's an easy one compared to the others, we can't afford it, too much is at stake." He turned to the wizards, "We are not wizards and witches, as you may have guessed from our lack of wands. We aren't muggles, as you call them, we aren't even mortal," he took a deep breath, ready to reveal them all, when the wall exploded.

 **Hey y'all! I hope you enjoyed that! I decided to followed the Riordan tradition of cliffhangers, because I am a** **terrible** **person. Yay! I want to hear your** **predictions** **, I am** **genuinely** **curious of what you think will happen next. And if you are a future reader and the next chapter is out, tell me anyway, I want to know. Okay, I need sleep so I better finish adding this before I fall asleep on the** **keyboard** **. Hope you enjoyed! One last thing. I'm adding an original character to the story. She will be a demigod. I need y'all to tell me in the reviews who you think her godly parent should be. If you want me to make the godly parent a...particular...deity, whom I have picked out but haven't decided weather to use or not, comment ?. Thanks! This demigod has to be in the next chapter so I'll need some ideas before I can post it.**


	9. Chapter 9

"STOP!" A voice shouted from the rubble. All eyes turned to the cloud of dust where the wall had been. A girl stumbled out, wheezing and coughing. "S-stop." She coughed, tripping over the rubble, "Nico don't." She said.

Weapons were out all over the great hall, all of the hunters bows and nearly every wand was aimed at her, arrows notched and spells ready. She glared at the wizards, "Nico, if you tell them you will only make it worse." She said before dissolving into a coughing fit. The dust had mostly cleared by now and everyone could see that a hole had been blasted clear through the castle.

Chiron wheeled forward, "Who are you miss?" he asked when she recovered.

"I'm sorry, I have places to be, I was just...where was I? OH! Right, Nico," She turned to the boy in question, ignoring Chiron's question, "If you tell them the ministry will declare war on camp, I can't tell you everything, but don't do it," She lowered her voice so only the demigods could hear, "Unless you want to lose another sister." Nico paled and cast a glance at Hazel, who had heard and was equally pale.

"Right, soooooo, I'll be going." She said and jumped off the stage, melting into a shadow at its base.

There was a stunned silence for several minutes, then the demigods cleared the stage in silence, deciding to heed the cryptic warning of the strange girl. Nico didn't get over his shock for quite some time. Will had taken him to an empty classroom in hopes of getting him to talk. Will had been to far away to hear the whispered warning and no one who had heard would tell him.

"What did she say Nico?" He asked softly after a minute of Nico just staring off into space with a blank expression on his face and Will sitting next to him and waiting.

"She said something that she couldn't possibly know." He said. Will let out a tiny laugh, "That's all she said Nico, you'll have to be more specific." Nico laughed, "She said I would lose Hazel if I told the wizards who we were." Will drew back slightly in shock, "How could she possibly know that!" He said, a little louder than necessary.

"Because I saw it happen."

~oOo~

Annabeth and Percy were in the Slytherin commons with the rest of the seven. The Slytherins hadn't been happy about outsiders in the commons but none of them wanted to stand up to the strange kids who fought like demons.

"Who do you think she was?" Annabeth asked after mulling the question over in her head.

"And why didn't she tell anyone who she was, I mean how did she know we would listen?" Jason asked, who, along with Piper, Leo, and Frank, had been too far away to hear the whispered warning.

"She said I would die if Nico told." Hazel said, leaning in so the wizards in the room wouldn't hear.

"WHAT?" Frank exclaimed, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. Curious wizards turned to them, but quickly turned back to eavesdropping discreetly when they glared at them.

"What I want to know," Draco said from behind Annabeth and Percy, "is why she had to wreck our school to warn you bozos, and what you really are." He raised an eyebrow, but only got glares from most of the group.

Annabeth spoke up after a brief glaring war, "Get lost Draco." He let out a low whistle and squeezed onto the couch next to Hazel, "Feisty, but why? What are you hiding?" He asked twirling his wand between his fingers.

"None of your business." Frank said through clenched teeth, pulling Hazel closer to him on the couch. Draco ignored the preater. Bad move.

"I want answers, you all confessed to not being wizards, and you say you're not muggles, so what are you?" He leaned back, stretching his arms across the back of the couch. His hand brushed Hazel's shoulder.

"Frank," She said, her tone hard, "Hold my flower." She removed the colorful rose from her hair. Frank held out his hand, "Gladly." He took the flowed and Hazel rose, scanning Draco and spotting the silver Slytherin pendant on his robe.

"You see, Draco," She said, "My friend told you to get lost, I suggest you need her words." Draco brushed her off. Worse move.

"Or what, you wouldn't attack me here, your little destructive friend told you to avoid a war, this could very well start one if something as trivial as your identity can start one." She smiled sweetly, watching the spot where the pendant had been, "You're right, I wouldn't dare attack you here." Then she sat down, shoving him off the couch, "But I would like some space."

Draco left in a huff, a silver L pinned to his back.

~oOo~

Will and Nico bolted to their feet, weapons ready.

"Who are you?" Nico asked through gritted teeth.

"I-I can't answer that." His sword was at her throat with her back pinned to the wall before anyone could process a coherent thought.

"Please, Nico, let me explain." He had his first good look at her. Before she had been covered head to toe in dust, one couldn't tell what color her hair was then. But now she had cleaned off. She had short black hair, braided with all kinds of seemingly random things, leather strips, feathers, a disturbing number of bullet casings, about five, arrowheads and what looked like charms from a charm bracelet. She was paler than should have been natural, just like Nico, and she dressed all in black with a long coat that came to her knees.

But what Nico couldn't take his eyes off of were her eyes. One second they were ice gems of blue, the next they had shifted to a glowing orange, then they were sapphires, then coals, then sparkling banks of snow. Her face was dusted with freckles, and she had one tiny one at the corner of her left eye, were Nico had decided to focus instead of those eyes.

"How?" He asked, pushing the blade closer to her neck. She closed her eyes, "If you're going to kill me, do it, but don't waste my time with threats. I'll explain everything I can. But I can't tell you everything, you have to understand that." She was pleading now, just a helpless child trying to get him to believe her. He sighed and dropped her. She crumpled to the ground and grabbed her neck, "Don't you think I've nearly choked to death enough times today." she said as she stood to face him and Will.

She took a deep breath and began, "I am a demigod," she started, "but I can't tell you my godly parent. That matter is...delicate." Nico nodded for her to go on, knowing if he dwelt on this one thing he probably wouldn't get another chance to hear what she had to say.

"I used a powerful kind of magic to get here, I can't explain that either, but I had to get here. You see, if that war happens, I lose everything I care about." She took a deep breath and continued, "I know you, or I will, so I knew exactly when I had to get here. You are actually the only person who didn't try to kill me the second you saw me-" she choked and slid down the wall, tears welling up in her eyes from some memory that surfaced behind her eyes, which were now a solid shade of red, like hot coals ready to burst into flame.

"I had to save you-" She caught herself just as the tears slid down her cheeks, "You told me not to," she whispered, "You said you had gone through enough, that you wanted to die-" She broke down in sobs and Nico had the irrational urge to comfort her. He shook his head, _You just met her, she hasn't given you a single straight answer in all the time that you've known her and now she's spouting nonsense. No Nico._

Will had gone to her and they were talking in Greek, "I tried, I'm sorry," She broke down, she couldn't be more than sixteen at the very most.

"What did you try to do?" Will asked comfortingly.

"I tried to save everyone, you die, you all die. You win the war, you obliterate the wizards, but it leaves you too weak to fight the monsters, just like they planed, you didn't know that last time, I directed you to that dream." she sniffed and was about to go on when she was interrupted, "Well, if it isn't our little mystery girl. Bringing tales of doom from beyond the stars!" Draco mocked from the doorway, "I heard you all put on that little show for attention, is it true mystery girl?" He asked with mock sincerity. Nico glanced at the girl, the look of pure hatred in her eyes was enough to make _him_ want to get as far away as possible.

" _You._ " She said, her fists trembling in rage. She got to her feet and whipped her arm to her side. A wicked looking dagger materialized out of a thin ring Nico hadn't noticed on her finger. "You don't know me yet _Draco Malfoy_ but I know you. I know what you would have done. I only wish I had the pleasure of killing you myself." Nico made a grab for her but she was quick, she had Draco pinned to the wall, in a similar way to how Nico had just pinned her, with her blade at his throat.

"Unfortunately I have siblings who will track me down if I kill you now, δολοφόνος." Nico shivered, _murderer._ One didn't call just anyone something like that immediately after threatening their life, no, wherever this girl came from, Draco had killed someone, someone she cared about for her to have such a strong reaction to him.

" _What did he do?_ " Will asked in greek.

" _I can't tell you._ " She dropped Draco and changed her knife back into a ring. Draco sat frozen on the ground while they continued their conversation in greek.

"I have to go." She said as she paced the room, looking for a way out, but most of the shadows were just slivers in the corners or directly below someone because of the overhead lighting.

"What's your name?" Nico spoke up, daring to meet her eyes.

"You'll find out in…" She looked up, as if calculating something, "Two years, if I'm born that is."

"You're a time traveler." Will said in surprise and wonder.

"Yes."

Then she was gone.

Draco sat there, processing. He remembered Hermione saying they spoke in greek and latin when they didn't want to be overheard, so he had used a charm to translate the languages, which he kept on at all times. He had understood everything.

~oOo~

Hermione was with the hunters. Thalia was telling her about them, giving her a chance to join. She was considering.

"So, no boys, ever?" She asked, leaning forward.

"Never." Thalia responded, firing and arrow at a target she had painted on a tree a ways into the forest.

"Okay, but why? I mean, I know Artemis has to stay a virgin, but the rest of you don't have to, she could change it is all I'm saying." Hermione said, putting her hands up in surrender.

Thalia laughed, "It's been like that for thousands of years, it's not changing now." Hermione shrugged and asked, "But, that immortality thing, you don't die unless you're killed, but what if you get sick and die from that? Like if a girl with cancer were to join would she die of her cancer or be immortal just like the rest of you?"

Thalia pondered this for a minute, "I don't think she would die, we only die if we're killed in battle, an I don't think that battling cancer counts. It might, I'll have to ask lady Artemis."

Hermione's eyes widened, "You can actually talk to her!? Like, face to face?"

Thalia laughed again, "Of course, the whole point is to keep her company and help her hunt. It's not like we're just some group of fangirls or something who just hunt in her name. There are a few groups who she has to send out on their own though, there are to many of us to be in one hunting party, we wouldn't be able to catch anything with those kinds of numbers. Hunting requires stealth, you see, if there are to many of us it will be nearly impossible to hide everyone and not make a sound." Hermione nodded, "I see, I suppose that makes sense. And all I have to do to join is recite the oath to Artemis?" Thalia noded and fired another arrow, splitting the last one down the center.

Hermione's jaw dropped, "You've _got_ to teach me that!" She exclaimed, earning another laugh from Thalia, "Here," She said showing Hermione how to hold the bow and notching an arrow, "just hold it like this, see, now notch the arrow, good, now aim, don't hold it like that, you'll lop your ear off," She adjusted the bow in Hermione's hands and directed her aim to an oak tree only a few yards into the woods.

The arrow flew, missing the tree by several feet. Hermione frowned, "How do you do it so well?" she asked. "Practice, and a blessing from the goddess of archery." That shared a laugh and put the bow down.

One of the other hunters called Thalia over for lunch and invited Hermione to join them. She accepted and went over to them.

"So you're considering joining us?" One of the girls asked, Amber Thalia had said, offering her a plate.

"Yeah, I am." She responded, taking the plate and going to the fire, where the food had been set out and the girls were passing plates around and chatting.

"We've never had a witch before, can you fight?" Amber asked, following beside her.

"Not like you can," Hermione took some meat, she wasn't sure she wanted to know what kind, and passed the plate along, "I can use spells with my wand, but I'm not very physical. I'm smart though, I can make plans and such."

Amber noded, "Gracey over there," she said, pointing to a red haired girl by the fire, "she's a daughter of Athena, she usually handles the plans, she's not as smart as Annabeth but she's close. She's actually the reason we keep winning capture the flag against camp half blood." She pointed to another girl, "And she's a daughter of Ares, she is weapons expert without a match." She took a plate of strawberries from another girl and put some on her plate, then gestured to a third girl, "She's a daughter of Venus, her charmspeak cannot compare to Piper's but she's actually pretty powerful, and a good fighter." Hermione nodded to show she was listening as they sat down next to a tree, "Thalia is the most powerful of us though, she's a daughter of Zeus, but you knew that, she can summon lightning if she wants to and is a lieutenant, meaning she's like Artemis's right hand." Amber put a strawberry in her mouth and chewed as Hermione mulled that over.

"How long do I have to decide whether or not to join?" She asked after a minute of them just eating, Amber with more vigor than should have been acceptable for a girl.

"I'm not sure," Amber said after swallowing, "you'll have to ask Thalia, I've only been here for a few months, only saw the last bits of the war, but she's been here since the last great prophecy, the one about Percy. You know the one? I don't know if you heard anything about it here." She could probably tell from Hermione's blank stare that she had no idea what Amber was talking about.

"Okay then, basically, there was a great prophecy about a child of the eldest gods, that Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, they thought at first that it was Percy after he got claimed, but then Thalia was, would you call it resurrected? Anyway, the golden fleece turned her back into a human, I mean her tree is still there, it's just not _her._ So, they thought it might be her, then she joined the hunters before she turned sixteen so now she'll never turn sixteen, that narrowed it down to Percy, or, a few years later, Nico. But the war escalated to quickly for it to be Nico, so it had to be Percy. He fulfilled the prophecy and chose not to destroy Olympus, so that's a plus." She said all of this without taking a breath and when she stopped she immediately shoveled a bunch of food into her mouth.

Hermione didn't understand half of that, but she didn't want to ask, so her just pretended to know and said, "My guess would be a couple weeks then, before you leave." Amber nodded, "It's as good a guess as any, but you can't know for sure till you ask." Then she shoveled more food into her mouth and Hermione had to keep herself from wrinkling her nose in disgust, didn't that girl have any manners?

She finished her food in silence and went up to her dorms, where she was surprised to see Annabeth waiting for her.

"Hey," Annabeth said, closing the book she had been reading, which looked to be in greek.

"Hey," Hermione responded as she walked over to the demigod.

"So, I was thinking," Annabeth started, staring down at her book, "That girl, the one who appeared and told Nico not to tell, I think she could be working for the enemy."

Hermione blinked, "Oh." she hadn't been expecting to talk about her, "I think that's a reasonable theory. But my question is, why?" She held up a hand to stop Thalia, "I know what you're going to say, you think it would have worked and that she was sent to stop it, but I'm saying that doesn't make sense. Even if you set aside the fact that she blew up a sizable section of our school and seemed desperate, it still wouldn't make sense that she would know exactly what to say to stop Nico from continuing, I mean, how would the monsters have known that about him when most of his own allies wouldn't know that."

Thalia shrugged, "Maybe they got smarter." Hermione gave her a sceptical look but didn't say anything else. Even if that girl didn't work for the monsters, there was certainly something suspicious about her. And Hermione intended to find out what.

After a while Hermione made her way to bed, finding several dozen demigods scattered throughout the halls on her way. She weaved her way around them and got up to her room, where she found Hazel.

"Hey," She greeted the demigod, not quite sure what to say, "I didn't know you were still going to go here."

Hazel looked up at her, she had been fiddling with a piece of gold in her hands, shaping it into something, "Oh, yeah, I'll keep coming here. Chiron explained everything about, um," She cast an uneasy glance at the door, where a pair of girls had just walked in, whispering and giggling, "That thing we told you about." The girls voices hushed slightly as they tuned in to the other girls' conversation, "so," Hazel continued cautiously, "there should be a few more of us coming here now, in case of another attack. We all know you witches and wizards wouldn't stand a chance without us."

Scoffs from one of the girls, who whipped around and thrust a finger at Hazel, "We can take care of ourselves!" She shrieked, outraged, "We don't need some secretive little muggles to take care of us! We just finished our own war you know! We beat the most powerful wizard of all time and his army while you sat in America and did nothing to help!"

Hazel gave her a smile. The girls angry look faltered, "We did nothing," Hazel echoed quietly, "Hu, interesting. Well, if that's what you think, maybe I should show you just how much 'nothing' I did." Hazel's face wore a pleasant smile, but her eyes were dangerously dark. Hazel stood, putting the piece of gold on the bed. Hermione saw that it was a figurine of a horse.

Hazel gently pushed the girls finger down, "Be careful about accusing people of being idle, you might insult them." Then she grabbed the girls wrist, just as gently as she had directed her finger. The witch went stiff for a second, her eyes glazing over. Then she screamed.

~oOo~

Hazel took the gild wrist and pulled her into a memory, just like she had with Leo what felt like an eternity ago. She had learned to control her flashes when they had started coming back not long after the end of the war. The memory she showed the girl was from that final battle, just a short clip, but enough to make the girl eat her words. Hazel had suffered at the hands of bullies before, and she wouldn't stand for it again, not this time. No one call her or her friends useless or idle, not when they had been busily getting themselves killed trying to save the world, not now, not ever.

When the witch snapped out of it she screamed and ripped her hand away, apparently not used to such bloody combat, "You-you-" she stuttered, "What are you?!" She demanded, rubbing her wrist as if to wipe away the memory.

"Were we idle?" Hazel asked, ignoring the questioning looks from Hermione, "Or were you just being an ignorant muggle." The wizard slang felt strange in her mouth, but it was all part of keeping the secret. The witch stuttered something incomprehensible and took her friend by the hand, hurrying both of tham out of the room.

Hazel explained what she'd showed the girl to Hermione and the two of them went to bed. Hazel picked up the little gold Arion and crushed it, forming it into something new. She had seen the thing she wanted to make in a history book while researching the history of magical objects. The gold was clay in her hands, taking the form of a necklace with a circular pendant at the end, three rings, the one in the center with little stars in the solid gold and a glass sandglass at the very center. She whispered a prayer to Hecate and felt the gold grow warm under her fingers. It glowed faintly and faded, the magic instilled in the golden charm. She hung it around her neck and tucked it into her shirt. All she had was a feeling, a feeling that she might need that little device soon.

The time came sooner than anyone would have expected.

 **Hey, so I know this one took longer than any of the others but I do have an explanation. I just moved into an apartment, money is tight so we can't afford wi-fi just yet, meaning updates will only come when I can get access. I am currently using the hotspot on my sisters phone to update this, so that wont be happening too often. I'm really sorry, I would use my school's wi fi but they block this site, so it's hotspot or library for me. And I get up at six each morning and don't get home till four or fie, depending on when I'm picked up from my bus stop, which is several miles from my apartment and it's winter in Minnesota, so walking is out of the question. I'm not tell you guys this for pitty though, I get plenty of that from the few people I have told about this. You guy's don't need to hear about the full extent of the drama in my life, I'm just tell y'all why I won't be updating as often now. Hope you don't get to mad, I'm doing what I can until I get internet the my apartment.**

 **Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, I know you probably expected more from the long wait but I've been swamped with preparations for my exhibit at school, I did a project on the Titanic, something I consider to be one of my historical specialties. I had to finish the layered diagram I was drawing of the layout and put together my presentation, thankfully I don't have to do research papers till next year though.**

 **Tell me what you thought of the chapter in the comments, guesses on the godly parent of our mystery demigod are welcome.**


	10. Chapter 10

Annabeth bolted upright with a scream, waking the others in the room, she was was in her old bed in the Slytherin dorms and the witches in the room were giving her dirty looks and telling her to keep it down. she ran her shaking hands through her hair as the thumping of footsteps echoed down the hall. The nightmare was different than usual. she usually dreamed about...that _place,_ but this time she had dreamed about something worse. Something much, much, worse.

The door swung open to reveal Percy, with most of the seven and a few random campers behind him. He ran over, despite the witches protests, and scooped Annabeth into his arms.

He whispered into her hair in Greek, "What was it about?"

she steadied herself and spoke in English, unable to clear her head enough for Greek, "Take me to Chiron, something bad is coming," she turned to the rest of the demigods as Percy set her down, "The rest of you need to gather the rest of the campers, send a girl the wake the hunters, and Frank," she turned to him, "Send for troops, we'll need reinforcements." she marched out of the room, brushing off the witches, who were all asking a thousand questions at once.

she got to Chirons classroom and barged in, finding him in his wheelchair talking to Mr.D through an IM.

"Chiron, Mr.D," she said as she walked in, not bothering to ask permission, "The school is going to be under attack in about an hour, I need to talk to you."

Chiron nodded immediately, being used to this sort of thing, and Mr.D just looked bored, "Well then, Anniesweth Cheese," Mr.D drawled, "explain yourself."

she cleared her throat and hurried forward, sitting down on a chair that had been haphazardly shoved to the side of the room, and explained, "I had a dream, the monsters are preparing an attack, bigger and stronger than before, I have Frank calling support from New Rome and the campers preparing for a battle. They should be here in about an hour based on the landscape ao we have that long to prepare," she took a breath and continued, "Mr. D, if you could send some campers over with The Argo's four and five that would be splendid, maybe send the underworld children as well if you can spare them."

Dionysus just looked bores and waved his hand, "Fin, fine, I'll send them, but I expect an offering tonite miss Chopp." she thanked him and promised an offering, not bothering to correct him on her name. she continued to explain her suggestions for battle strategy with Chiron while Mr.D left the IM to do as Annabeth had requested.

~oOo~

Percy ran through the halls of the school, shouting to wake the demigods and rouse the Wizards, some of which had chosen to sleep in the halls with the demigods for some reason. He called them to arms and ordered them prepare for battle, though not like Jason or Frank, who were much more like drill sergeants, being at least partly Roman.

"Half bloods, wake up, weapons ready!" Percy shouted, "Be prepared for another Manhattan!" He added to encourage some of the older campers, who were at the battle of Manhattan and probably still had nightmares about it, just like Percy.

Frank had IM'd camp Jupiter and help was on the way in one of Leo's specialized flying warships, which had been mass produced until both camps had a full navy/air force. Percy assumed Annabeth had done the same for Camp Half Blood, she alway thought of those things. Piper used her charmspeak to make everyone move quicker and to shake the drowsiness from their spent bodies.

Percy speed walked through the halls, stepping over the extended limbs and backpacks of the drowsy demigods as he went. He found a sizable closet and opened the door, finding Nico and Will sleeping in a huddled mass. He chuckled and kicked Nico's foot, "Wake up death boy," He poked Will with the tip of riptide, "Upsi-daisy sunshine, war time." Nico groaned and wrapped an arm around Will, who tightened his arms around Nico.

"Okay lovebirds, UP." he kicked Wills shin, hard.

The boy cursed at him in ancient Greek and opened his eyes groggily, "Go away," He said and hugged Nico tighter, curling around his boyfriend as if he were a prized teddybear.

Percy kneeled down, "Okay doctor boy, I guess you'd leave the wounded on the battlefield to heal themselves."

Will cursed at him again and got up, lying Nicos head, which had been resting on his chest, on the ground, "Okay," He said quietly, Nico had apparently fallen back asleep, "let's go." They closed the closet door behind them and hurried down the hall, Percy explaining everything to him as they went.

"So Annabeth had a nightmare this time?" He asked, his mind clearly elsewhere.

"Yeah." Percy responded, noticing the distracted look on the usually hyper-alert doctor's face, "And we're going to use an army of hellhounds as the first defence, while the gorgons go attack from behind so the emposi can launch a solid frontal attack." Percy teased, his voice perfectly serious.

"Uh-hu." Will said, making for the medical tent as they reached the outside of the castle, "Sounds great."

Percy grabbed his arm, "What's going on with you?" He asked, worried, "You're usually at the top of your game at the start of a battle, especially when Nico's safe, which we both know he is, so what on earth are you thinking about?"

Will shook himself out of his thoughts, "Oh, um," He search for something to say but gave in, settling with the truth, "Nico and I met the mystery girl." Percy looked shocked but nodded for him to continue, his voice lowered, "she appeared out of nowhere, apparently she can shadow travel. she wouldn't tell us much, only that she's a demigod and I figured out that she can time travel."

Percy looked puzzled, "But how…" He let the question hang.

Will shrugged, "she wouldn't even give her name, said we'll meet her in two years, or Nico will, she seemed to know him better than most, and she _hates_ Draco, called him a murderer."

Percy wasn't to surprised at this, he was an easy guy to hate, but _murderer_? That kid may be a bully but he hasn't killed anyone that Percy knew of. Then he remembered the time travel.

"You mean he _will_ kill someone?!" Percy asked, hardly realizing that they had switched to Greek.

"she implied that she was from a sort of different timeline, I guess is how you would describe it, and that he wouldn't kill whoever it was he killed in this one, now that she stopped Nico."

Suddenly the air around them rippled. Percy felt a cold fist dread settle over him, he _knew_ this feeling, and he dreaded it. The feeling was gone as soon as it had appeared and the dread disappeared, suddenly Percy could hardly remember what it was he was dreading. A girl shimmered into existence where the air had rippled, the mystery girl.

she was dressed in the same coat as before, buttoned up to her neck so it his any clothes except a pair of fishnet tights that extended down her legs and disappeared into combat boots. But the most unsettling thing about her was the monster dust that covered her head to toe. she had significantly more braids, all with something new attached to it, most notable of the new items being what appeared to be an engagement ring hanging down next to her ear.

"Percy," she addressed the boy, as if randomly shimmering into existence covered in monster dust were the most natural thing in the world, which, to demigods, wasn't to far off, "You need to get down to the lake, by now Will ought to have told you all about me so I won't bother with explanations," Percy wanted to shout, _You never do!_ But he figured he shouldn't interrupt,

"The monsters are in four groups, one will attack near the lake, I figured you'd be most useful there, bring Annabeth and some other demigods to back you up, there's a sizable group coming." she turned to Will, "Nico will be injured, warn the stubborn little ghost king that the the forbidden forest may be considerably safer than the woods at camp half blood, but they are still woods and offer blind spots for monsters to hide in, tell him that no matter what he is to stay on the front lines with the Romans."

she tried to step into a shadow but Percy grabbed her sleeve, "Tell me your name, I won't keep calling you 'mystery girl',"

she looked slightly scared and looked down, not up like half bloods when they were afraid of doing something wrong, "Ever." Then she dropped into the castled shadow, presumably to give more orders to unsuspecting demigods. Percy and Will went to do as they were told, hoping that they weren't making a horrible mistake.

~oOo~

Ever melted out of shadow after shadow, navigating through them with expert ease and landing exactly where she wanted to be to instruct the half bloods. Annabeth had tried to question her and she'd barely managed to keep herself from scarring that no good prick Malfoy, but other than that she'd gotten off without giving more than her name.

"Ever," The voice cooed above her, "I thought I told you to be back here by seven fifty eight."

she looked up at the figure who had spoken, "I did." she practically spat.

"Oh, but you went somewhere before coming here, didn't you sweet Ever?"

she flinched and hung her head, "I have to go." she said, her voice hard. she stepped into her own shadow, which spread in front of her in a long spindly, reflecting her ever thinning frame. she passed through the shadow, not focusing on where she was going.

she materialized on the battlefield just before the second demigod/moster battle of Hogwarts. she sighed and spun her ring, muttering, "Défteros," under her breath. Might as well fight, she knew how this battle went.

she glanced to her left, she knew the somewhere, hiding in the trees of the forbidden forest, was one of her past selves, watching how the battle progressed so she could instruct the demigods on how to win.

she looked to her right to find a legion of staring demigods, "Figured I'd help out, some of you aren't convinced I'm here to help. Well here I am." she looked pointedly at Thalia.

Thunder rumbled above her, she glared at the sky, muttering under her breath as the demigods looked away, "Zeus, if you want to make me leave you'll have to get off your high horse and tell me yourself."

The thunder stopped, then a figure emerged from the trees, "EVER!" Zeus thundered, his voice booming over the crowd, "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT JOINING BATTLES!" she didn't even flinch, she stared the god in the face as the demigods seemed to contemplate weather to fall to their knees or sing out praises for the obviously angry god.

"You told me," she drawled, "not to." she stepped toward him, turning her sword back into a ring, "I didn't listen." There were nervous muttering through the ranks, the god's name was whispered around as the half bloods realized who this mysterious girl who appeared out of nowhere and ordered them around, was sassing off to.

"You little-" Zeus looked like he wanted to strangle her, "GO BACK TO MANHATTAN!" she pouted and put her hands on her hips, "THe battles going to start in," she looked at her watch, "three minutes, join us or go hide in your throne room." Zeus looked at her with pure murder but vanished. The muttering started up again but she ignored everyone else, focusing on the tree where she knew a hellhound would bound out from behind any minute now.

Sure enough, out came the hellhound, along with a hundred other monsters in just the first wave. There would be three more, along with three other groups of about three hundred on each of the side of the property. Ever had ensured that Percy, Annabeth and a small group of demigods were protecting the side near the lake, Leo was on Festus with Piper, who had a megaphone, enhanced to project her charmspeak over the enemy five times as powerful as it left her lips, blessed by Aphrodite herself. They protected the air. There were groups of skilled fighters on every side of the building, consisting of demigods and wizards alike.

Ever dodged the hellhounds first strike and landed one of her own, her stygian iron cutting into the dog's leg. It howled in pain and struck again. she rolled out of the way and landed on one knee. she yanked a charm from her hair and it grew into a bow with an arrow notched and a quiver appeared at her hip. she fired the arrow while dodging a cyclops' sword. The arrow impaled the monsters neck and it dissolves into dust. she whipped around to face the cyclops, not taking the time to revel in her victory.

The cyclops tried to slash at her with its sword but she was too quick, or, rather, her magic to powerful, for him to land the blow on time. she ran him through from behind and faced another monster, a telkine who was attacking the demigod at her back. she killed it before it could kill the Roman soldier. she cut a bloody canyon through the enemy, not stopping until the battle was over.

she stood ankle depp in monster dust panting. Nico was the only one who dared to came near her. she knew that during the battle her eyes had been angry red, as they always were when she fought, or wanted to fight.

"Um, so your name is Ever," He said awkwardly, clearly not wanting to upset her. He had seem what she had done to the monsters, the speed with which she moved, no, he didn't want this girl mad at him.

"Yeah," she gulped down another breath, "I shouldn't have told but Percy is kinda scary and Zeus is the king of drama." Nico glanced up at the sky, which stayed curiously silent.

"About that, um, what did you...who...how…" He struggled to find the right question.

she shook her head, "Two years, Nico, two years until I can tell you everything." He nodded, clearly confused. she shook her head again and brushed some of the monster dust off her coat, "I've got to go, can't let the gods think I'm a coward." He was about to ask what she meant when she vanished, shimmering out of existence as if she had never been there at all.

 **Yo! So my computer refused to load most of this, else I would have added it sooner so sorry, but here it is. It's not as long as I hoped it would be but I've got a book to write other than this one so I don't have tons of free time. Anyhow, as I'm writing this it's 11:30 and I'm tired so I can't brains now.**

 **Tell me what you think in the reviews, your input is always welcome. I want to hear your guesses on Ever's parentage as well, I added a few clues and misdirects in here for y'all so I want to know if you noticed them.**


	11. Chapter 11

Ever appeared in the throne room on Olympus, hands on her hips as she glowered at the gods, twenty feet tall in elaborate thrones. And looking nervous.

"I thought I told you," She said in a mock sweet tone, "not to get in my way," Her tone dissolved into a growl and several of the gods cringed.

"I-" Zeus started but she cut him off,

"You nothing," She stated, glaring at him, "I told you not to interfere, now you've got my parents mad at me again for screwing with the timelines. They don't like the wizarding types you know, and now that I've got myself mixed up in their business…" her arrogant mast faltered, but came back before most of the Olympians could notice, "Look, I gave you one simple request," She looked pointedly at each Olympian as she spoke, "and you failed to honor it," Some of the gods were visibly shaking at this point, the all powerful immortal beings terrified of a tiny half blood spouting threats in their stronghold.

"So," She continued, her angry tone becoming low, almost sweet, "I'll have to punish you…" Her smile was the most horrifying thing the gods of Olympus had ever seen.

And the little half blood gave them her punishment.

~oOo~

Nico wok in a cold sweat, stifling a scream. His dream was just a memory, he reminded himself, a twisted version of something that already happened. He ran his fingers through his shaggy hair and let out a breath. They had won the battle the day before, largely because of Ever's recommendations. Ever. That girl was a riddle. He pushed her out of his mind and gently detangled his limbs from Wills and slipped out of the closet, which they had found near the entrance to the dungeons.

He walked silently down the hall, straightening his clothes as he went. He didn't know where he was going, only that he needed to clear his head. He soon found himself in the seventh floor corridor, pacing the stretch of hall over and over. He stopped for a second to look out the window, gazing up at the stars. He watched the huntress for a time absently. He frowned, something was off. The huntress looked back down at him with an urgency in her single star eye that she shouldn't have been able to project, what with her being, you know, _stars_. He nodded to show that he saw and a shooting star shot from the end of her bow, fizzing out halfway through the sky. _And,_ Nico thought, cold dread hardening in his gut, _right over the closet where Will was sleeping._

He knew that he shouldn't jump to conclusions like that, but his mind and body were two separate entities as she found himself sprinting down the corridor. He made it to the closet and pushed the door open gently. Will was gone.

~oOo~

Will was faintly aware of chains around his wrists and ankles and the faraway voices of monsters above him. His ears rang and his head pounded, his entire body naked when he tried to move as if his muscles had been pumped full of lead. He groaned and tried to look up at his captors, dully wondering where Nico was.

The monsters above him came into focus, their grinding faces sending his mind into a frenzy. "DANGER!" his head shouted, clearing away the fog. He forced his limbs to move, finding that the chains weren't attached to anything. _Odd,_ he thought and stood with a lot of difficulty and forcing his limbs into a fighting stance. _Why don't they just attack me?_ He wondered, swinging a punch at the cyclops in front of him. There were snickers from the monsters when he dodged easily. He swung again, trying to hit the monsters around him, who continued to laugh at his futile efforts.

"Enough," an amused voice said from his left. The monsters parted to reveal a cloaked figure, layers of colored cloth covering every inch of their skin.

"Who…" Wills voice was horas, as if he'd drunk sand instead of water.

The figure chuckled, "Oh you poor little thing," Its voice was like silk, neither male nor female, just smooth, like water over pebbles in a gentle creek.

"I pity you," It said, gripping his chin with a gloved hand, the fingers under the leather strong and bony, "truly I do," their tone was sympathetic, in the way a butcher talking to sheep before the slaughter was sympathetic.

"I only wish I could give you a better fate," The figures hand moved to fast for Will to follow as it released its grip on his chin and grabbed his chains.

The figure dragged him forward, headed for a raised platform in front of a crowd of cheering monsters. Will fought back, trying to fight against the surprisingly firm pull of the chains. The cuffs on his wrists bit into his skin, rusty metal rubbing into fresh wounds. He grit his teeth, ignoring the voice telling him he was doomed. Rust was one thing that did not belong in his bloodstream.

As they neared the platform Will noticed a simple looking pillar of rock about three feet high in the center of what was clearly a stage. His eyes widened as he realized what was happening. He fought hard, coaxing louder jeers from the audience. He struggled against the chains, ignoring the pain as he tried to find an exit. There was none. He kept fighting regardless, he would rather be ripped apart by monsters than face what waited for him on the stage. A stone pillar, a stage, and audience, chains that connected to nothing. He was being brought up one stage as entertainment, sick, twisted, entertainment. It was flogging.

His suspicions were confirmed when he was dragged up the wooden steps and saw the whipp laying on the floor, stripps of barbed leather stretching from a long handle, the end of which a a single long spike. He shouted protests in desperation, hoping that his friends would swoop in at the last second to save him, that's what they were good at after all. No such thing happened.

He was dragged flailing uselessly to the center of the stage, the monster cheering excitedly below him and gnashing their teeth in enthusiasm. The figure locked his chains to the white stone and stepped back. He was shaking, curling himself as tightly as his restraints would allow as he wished for someone to help him. He was a healer, not a fighter. He could fight but that isn't what he was best at, he healed people, helped them get better.

 _If you don't get back,_ a voice whispered in his head, _you will never get to see Nico get better._ That thought hit him like a brick to the chest. _Nico._ The boy had gone through so much, losing his sister, braving the labyrinth alone, Tartarus, Eros. There were very few people he let in now, and he hardly smiled for anything. He wouldn't survive losing Will on top of all that, not when he'd only just started to heal.

When the whip first hit him he screamed in pain. The pain seared through his back and tore through his body, his every nerve crying out. When it came again he grit his teeth, determined not to give them the pleasure of hearing him scream again.

Will endured. He endured for Nico, the outcast who had been broken more times than anyone could count. He endured because he had to. If he didn't get back he didn't want to know what the young ghost king would do if he didn't.

 **I would apologize for this, but I'm not sorry. I did warn you, or maybe not, either way I did say I liked blood did I not. I'm posting several chapters at once because this one is** **pathetically short. Tell me what you think'll happen next, I really want to know, to helps me decide what to do, who to kill, and there will be blood, well, more of it. Enjoy!**

 **P.S., if you want Will to survive tell me, if enough people vote not to break the ghost king I'll let him have his sunshine.**


	12. Chapter 12

Nico tore through the halls, bursting into the Slytherin commons and running to the boys dormitories and throwing open the door. Cries of "Bloody hell!" and "What's going on!" Could be heard throughout the dorm but Nico ignored them.

"Hey, emo kid, what's going on!" Draco shouted at him, getting up and stepping in front of the pissed son of Hades.

Nico grabbed his neck and growled, "Get. Out. Of. My. Way." Draco gulped and Nico tossed him to the ground, stepping over him and marching furiously over to Percy's bed. He threw open the curtains and grabbed his by the arm.

"You. Up. Now." His tone warned Percy away from refusing and he swung himself out of bed, instantly alert his brow etched with worry.

"What happened Nico?" Percy asked careful as the boy whipped around and made for the exit.

"Will was kidnapped and you are going to help me find him." The worry lines deepened on Percy's forehead,

"What if he just went to the bathroom or something?" Percy asked, hoping the scary kid wouldn't gut him.

"Does Zoe shoot arrows for people who go to the bathroom?" Nico asked, his voice becoming dangerously close to the tone his dad used when he was angry.

"Zoe?" Percy asked his eyes wide, "Let's go." The two of them had been sleepwalking while that talked, followed by a groggy mass of confused wizards, who stopped following once they got out of the common room. The pair sped through the halls, waking Piper, Frank, Jason, Annabeth, and Thalia, who had decided to sleep in the castle that night for some reason.

Nico relayed the story to them through gritted teeth as he paced uneasily back and forth in a secluded hallway.

"We should get Chiron," Annabeth suggested, watching the stressed ghost king in worry, "He should have more idea than us what to do."

Nico nodded and Frank ran off to the DADA classroom, where the centar was most likely to be.

"How do you think they got him with no one noticing?" Piper asked nervously, feeling suddenly unsafe. A thought entered all their minds at once. There was one person who was able to show up wherever, whenever she wanted. Someone who didn't seem to be bothered by wards of any kind. Someone who scared even the king of the gods. Ever.

But that was ridiculous, all she had done so far had, supposedly been to help. Hadn't it? They wondered at this, dreading the idea of her as their enemy. She could tear them apart, wipe them from existing as far as they knew. She _was_ a time traveler.

Hazel spoke up, "I think I have something that can help," All eyes turned to her, even Nico's, which were wild and desperate. She blushed and shrank away from their expectant gazes. She carefully pulled the time turner from the shirt, "This is a time turner," She started, holding it so everyone could see, "It's a time travel device that wizards used to use before they were all destroyed," She cleared her throat and straightened, "I made this one from some gold I summoned and asked Hecate to instil the magic it needed to work," She set it gently in her palm and looked down at it, "I think she did, and if I'm right we can use it to stop Will from being Kidnapped," She finished just as Frank came back with Chiron, pushing his wheelchair in front of him and dodging the limbs sprawled across the hall as quickly as he could manage.

Chiron had a worried expression on his face, "Let's go someplace more private," He suggested, his tone gentle. Nico nodded again and they made their way carefully around the sleeping kids and out to the bridge, which was devoid of demigods due to the chilly night air.

"Alright," Chiron said when they were alone, "I want Nico to explain everything from the beginning. So he did. He retold the story, his tone self loathing and tears pricking the back of his eyes. When he finished he closed his eyes, trying to squeeze back the tears. Instead, one slipped out and rolled down his cheek. His friends stood by helplessly, desperately wanting to comfort him but knowing any attempt they made would only make it worse.

After a pause the others continued to plan while Nico listened in silence, blaming himself, once again, for the suffering of everyone around him. He crumpled to the ground and shook with silent sobs while listening to the ones who called him friend try to figure out what happened to the one person he really cared about, the only one he always knew he could trust. Nico needed a doctor.

~oOo~

Ever shimmered into existence among the trees, watching the demigods on the bridge with tears in her eyes. She knew they would try Hazel's plan. She knew that when, if, they did, it would only make things worse. She walked on shaky legs over to the desperate demigods, knowing she had to warn them before they got themselves killed.

She was first spotted when she stumbled onto the bridge. Every one of them fell silent for a second, then they surged toward her, some asking for her help, others accusing her of kidnapping the healer. The tears spilled silently but her voice was steady, strong.

"Will was kidnapped by one of my siblings," She started when they had quieted enough for her to speak, "I swear on the river Styx that I didn't kidnap him," She said, putting the ones who had accused her at ease, "The time turner won't work with him, he can block that sort of thing, same as me," She took a deep breath as the half bloods deflated, "It will be useful, though, for another purpose," She cringed at her own plan, knowing just how many of her secrets she would have to give up for it to work, "I was never born anyway," She muttered under her breath and continued, "You could use it to come with me when I travel. I can't do that normally, you see, but with something enchanted to time travel, it might just work,"

The seven glanced at each other uncertainty, all of them thinking the same thing, who would go? They only had one time turner, so only one person could go, unless, by some miracle, they managed another favor from Hecate. No, one person could go, and only one. Whoever went would have to trust Ever, and, if they were honest, none of them really did. She was a wild card, dropping in to give advice then popping off to some random place in time. All they really knew about her was that her name was Ever, she was a half blood, and she might be able to time travel.

"I'll do it," Nico spoke up, answering the unspoken question. A few of the seven looked like they wanted to protest, but the look in his eyes stopped them. Hazel pulled the magical device over her head and held it out for Nico. When he grabbed it she pulled him into a giant bear hug and whispered in his ear, "Come back alive ghost king, I'm counting on you," He nodded fearfully and returned the hug. The rest of the seven gathered around and smothered the poor boy in a group hug but for once he didn't mind.

They reluctantly let him go and he hung the time turner from his neck and turned to Ever. She took a deep breath.

"I'm going to regret this," she muttered as she grabbed Nico's wrist, "Sorry," She said when he cringed at her touch, "All right," she said, louder, "I need you to focus on where Will was before he was kidnapped, the last place and time you remember seeing him. When we get there you _can not_ interfere, no matter how much you want to. When you deal with time travelers you have to be careful what you change, and changing this now will only make him go back further and take him then, or into the future. My point is, time travelers have to build a delicate balance of events so keep them stable, so if an enemy tries to change one thing you have to make sure doing so would have a negative impact on them even greater than the positive one,"

She looked over to see if Nico was still paying attention, which, to her surprise, he was. He also seemed to understand, at least to some degree, which was even rarer than someone still paying attention to her when she talked about this sort of thing.

"Okay," Nico sounded pained, but he still agreed, which was something, "Anything else I should know before we leave?"

Ever created a mental checklist, checking off everything she had mentioned, "His name is Damien," She said, realizing she hadn't mentioned his name, "My brother's name is Damian, he's ruthless and sadistic and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He's an expert time traveler and has learned all sorts of fighting from the master," She searched her mind for anything else that was vital for a first timer. She found nothing and shook her head, "That's all you need to know for now," She concluded turning to face him and grabbing his wrist, which she had dropped while she was talking, knowing that Nico hated physical contact.

"Okay, now focused, let me do the rest," She closed her eyes and reached out with her powers, feeling for the time turner. She latched onto it and burned it into her essence, searing pain erupting over her body as she did so. But she showed no signs of her pain, one had to be a great actress if they wanted to time travel. She used the time turner to find Nico's thoughts, the images he had pulled up there. It was clear as day, easy to latch onto. She took it and bent time to her will, finding the time and place she wanted to go to and willing herself there, taking Nico with her.

They shimmered out of existence.

 **Yay! I'm working on the next chapter now, I'll finish either tomorrow or in a few hours, depending on how long my older sister will let me stay up (we share a room, kill me now) Anyhow, remember the P.S. from the last chapter? I was serious, let me know in the reviews what you think. Additionally, I would like to ask, do you think the demigods should leave Hogwarts? I have a plan that might give y'all a look into Percy's life at Goode, and possibly some mortal friends of his. Tell me what you want from that, let me know if you think it's just a bunch of rubbish and that I should never have brought it up, or if you want to see it happen. Anyhow, I'll update soon, I swear it on the Styx.**


	13. Chapter 13

Nico's stomach churned. He felt as if it were doing jumping jacks while his body tried to dismember itself. He heard the sounds of voices, thousands of conversations carried out across space and time all pouring out on him at once while he could see a mix of confusing and indistinguishable scenes all overlayed on top of each other around him. He felt both warm and cold at once, he felt like he was standing in a hurricane of information while all of time swirled around him.

Then suddenly it was calm. He was standing in the hogwarts hall with Ever steadying him while he fought to keep what little he had in his stomach down. She removed her hands when he was steady enough to stand on his own and motioned for him to be quiet and waved him over to the wall. He pressed his back against it while Ever crept over to the corner, silent as the grave. _Did I teach her that?_ He wondered, he found himself hoping he had, then chiding himself for wishing that. He still didn't know her after all.

Ever motined for him to follow when she had confirmed his past self was gone. He peered around the corner, watching Will sleeping on his side in the closet, he hadn't even realized he'd left the door open. Suddenly the air shimmered and he sensed powerful magic in the air before a boy appeared outside the door, looking down at Will with an almost pitying look.

"Poor boy," He said quietly and Nico tried to calculate where his past self was, he guessed quite a distance away if he hadn't heard the boy speak.

"Poor boy indeed," Ever said, stepping out, signaling to Nico behind her back for him to stay put. He did as he was told, despite his instincts telling him to save Will.

"Ever!" The boy said, holding his arms out in a welcoming gesture, "It's been too long dear sister, to what do I owe this pleasure," He had black hair to match Ever's and was exceptionally handsome, in a cruel sort of way. He had that cruel smile and dark eyes, not color changing like Ever's. But what stood out most about him was the casual way he dressed, like any mortal you might meet on the street in jeans and Tshirt with a light, green sweater unzipped over it. This somehow made him even more terrifying.

"I think you know brother," Ever replied, breaking Nico out of his thoughts.

"Ah, I suppose you'll be wanting to save the boy," Her brother said, lounging against the doorframe.

"You think I'm stupid?" Ever asked, offended, "No, of course not. You'd just go back and take him sooner, of later, depending,"

He laughed and pulled and apple out of his coat, carving a piece of it off with a pocket knife and eating it before responding, "You've gotten smarter little sis," He said, taking another bite of his apple, "I didn't expect you to have such forethought,"

She growled but restrained herself, replying through gritted teeth, "I'm nearly a thousand years older than you, first of all, and second of all," She jabbed a finger into his chest, "I'll get him back, whether you tell me where you're taking him or not,"

He chuckled darkly, "I can give you clue," He said lazily, cutting off a slice of his apple, "for the usual price," He looked at her out of the side of his eye, gagging her reaction. She went bright red, suddenly finding the floor incredibly interesting.

"Well?" He asked, turning to face her, "One secret for a clue, what'da ya say,"

She met his eyes and answered, "Fine." Nico let out a breath, if she had refused he didn't want to know what would have happened.

"Alright then, tell me, why is it you hide your wings?" He asked, taking another bite of his apple. Nico found it incredable that Will was still asleep through all this. _Wings?_ A part of his mind wondered, his eyes wandering to Ever's back, which was, of course, wing free. He frowned, _What is he talking about?_

Ever got redder and ducked her head, "I can't let them see," She answered quietly.

"Who?" Damian asked, an amused smile on his lips.

"No, I gave you a secret, now you pay up," Ever's tone was hard, but Nico recognized the weakness under it, the same weakness that hid under his voice for years.

Damion looked at her like she was a kid who had cheated at a game, "Come on sis, you know that's not how it works, you have to give me the whole thing, no vague remarks, no cryptic statements, just a secret, raw and unprocessed,"

She grit her teeth and spoke, her voice quivering ever so slightly, "I couldn't let the demigods know who our parents are. I was afraid of being shunned or killed. They may forgive others with cruel parents, but not us, never us. Not with the blessings we have, the magic we posess and why,"

Damion had a satisfied smirk on his face, "I think you were right for the first time in your life," He said, putting a hand on her sholder, a brotherly gesture that she cringed away from, "Oh come on," He said, giving her shoulder a little shake, "You know I'm right, if those little demigods knew what we are they would send us to Tarturus for being born, and you know it,"

She pulled away from him and looked him in the eyes, "Pay up,"

He sighed, "I don't have the energy for a proper riddle, how about, where you remember you forgot? That work for you? Now I've gotta get this little healer kid to you-know-who before she kills us all,"

Ever looked pale as Damion injected a clear liquid into Will's arm and slung him over his sholder. He gave a little salute before dissappiering in the shimmering air. Nico was numb. He had just watched as his boyfriend was kidnapped by a phyco who scared a girl who got the king of the gods shaking in his sandls, and done nothing.

He got up stifly and went over to Ever, "What did he mean by that?" He asked, shaking her out of the trance she seemed to have gone into.

"Oh, um, not a place you should go. But I don' supose that will stop you will it? All well, come on," She grabbed his arm and they vanished, Nico barely having time to prepapre himself before they were off again through space and time.

~oOo~

Percy paced in front of the Hogwarts enerance, Annabeth watching him from inside the doors with a worried expression. They were the only ones left awake, the others having gone back to bed after a while he and Annabeth stayed up, to stressed for sleep.

"What if they killed him?" Percy asked finally, breaking the silence.

"We can't think like that," Anaabeth responded, her voice strong, commanding, "If they killed him Ever can go back to before he died and save him," She didn't show it, but she was nervous, uncertain, and Percy senced it.

"But what if she can't? What if we just let her take Nico to the enemy and neither of them are comming back?" Percy ran his fingers through his hair, meesing it up further.

"We can't think like that," Annabeth repeated, grabbing his arms to stop his pacing. She forced him to look her in the eye, "They _will come back._ They will appier here any second now with Will and we'll go back to bed and everything will be fine, okay? Everything will be fine," She forced him to believe it, to believe her, because if he didn't, he would tear himself apart.

"Now," She continued, dragging him after her into the school, "You and I are going to get some sleep and in the morning we will resume our classes and everything will be fine, it always is in the end,"

"Not for the one's who don't survive," Percy said quietly, bring ing tears to both of their eyes.

"We can't think like that," Annabeth reapeated again, fighting back tears, "Will will survive, okay, he'll make it. He always dose," Percy shut his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks. They walked through the halls, finding a secluded area away from the clusters of demigods and curled into one another, falling into reastless sleep wrought with nightmares from every battle they fought before.

~oOo~

The next morning Jason woke up with Piper's head on his chest, katoptris in her fist as she watched the blade.

"Good morning," He greeted as he rubbed his eyes. She looked up at him, sheathing her knife.

"Good morning," she reponded and got up, stretching out her limbs,.

"Any news?" Jason asked hopfully.

She shook her head, "Nothing, but we get sorted today so, that's something,"

His eyebrows drew together in confusion, "Sorted?"

"Yeah," Piper said, streatching her arms over her head and helping Jason to his feet, "They have this ceramony where the students put on this enchanted hat and it tells them which Hogwarts house they belong in,"

"Well that's a bit stupid, how's a hat suposed to know where you belong?" Jason stretched out his arms and followed Piper toward where she said the great hall was, he had forgotten.

"The hat's telepathic, it sees your memories and judges from there. Aparently the students here get sorted when they're eleven,"

"And they stay in the same house for their entire school career?"

"Yep," Piper said, turning to face him at the doors of the great hall, "I'm not sure how well it holds up over time, probably not well, but wizards'll be wizards," She pushed open the doors to join the rest of the seven, minus Frank, who had to get back to New Rome to defend his home, and the three who had already been sorted, who waited at the Slytherin tabel with worried expressions.

"Grace, Jason," Mcgonnagal called, drawing Jason's attention to thethree legged stool and ratty old hat at the front of the room. He walked up confidently, only wavering the slightest bit when he saw Percy cringe. He sat on the stool and stared streight ahead as the hat was lowred onto his head.

 _Ah,_ the hat spoke in his head, _son of Jupiter, former preater of New Rome, one of the seven of prophacy, yes, you would do nicely in any of the houses, nearly as loyal as Percy Jackson, brave as any of the seven and a leader like no other, cunning and smart, not so much as Annabeth Chase, but above average. Indeed you are fit for all the houses of Hogwarts, I need you to let me look deeper,_ Jason ressisted at first but finally gave up, letting the hat see his memories of the wars, and before, the ones even he had nearly forgotten, of before the wolf house, of his mother and Thalia.

The hat started hyperventalating, barely manageing to stutter out, "P-put him in Gr-Gryfindor! Gryfindor!" It shouted, seeming to be trying to get off his head. The headmaster lifted it off him and he went to his respective tabel, which was aplauding hesitantly.

"Valdez, Leo," The headmaster called out, making the boy in question hold up his hands and wave to the audience like a popstar at his concert. The seven collectively pace palmed.

Leo sat at on the stool, his face betraying nothing in the way of nerves, which were buzzing around inside him like hyperactive pinballs. Anything that could make Percy and JAson nervous was not something he wanted to come face to face with.

 _Well you are certainly a complacated one,_ The hat said in his head. Leo wasn't even a little suprized, he had gotten used to the impossable, this didn't even make the top fifty of the weirdest things that happened to him.

 _You hide your pain withu humor, I've seen that a few time before but never on this scale, my boy you are a piece of work._ Leo was offended, _Hey look mister hat,_ He told the voice, _I don't know who you think you are but get out of my head before I incinerate you,_ He heard a squeel in his head then the hat's hasy reply, _Just doing my job! Now let me see your memories, what is it with you demigods and blocking them off, just let me in and get it over with,_ Leo took a deep breath and let down his walls.

His memories flashed before his eyes all at once, overwhelming him. His hands burst into flame and the hat squeeled out, "I don' care, Ravenclaw, Gryfindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, put the dead boy anywhere!" Leo knocked the hat off his head and backed away from it, scampering over to the teachers table and extinguishing his hands.

"Well," The headmaster said, "I supose you can choose which house you want to go in,"

Leo continued to watch the hat as he responded, "What do all the houses mean, I'm not even sure, considering I was too busy blowing up monsters from the sky to check,"

Mcgonnagal rolled her eyes and responded, "It's a bit more complecated than this but Ravenclaw is for the most generally intellegent, Hufflpuff is for the loyal, Gryfindor is for the brave and Slytherin is for the cunning,"

He noded and thought for a second, his eyes scaning the tabels for the best fit, "I guess Gryfindor with my boy Jason," The headmaster noded and waved him over to his new table, whick clapped politely, having gotten used to the unusual by now, and Made room for him next to Jason.

"Mclean, Piper,"

Piper strode forward, her eyes betraying none of her nerves, which were bubbling over like teapot in her chest. She sat on the stool and the hat was lowered onto her head.

 _Another one! I have never sorted so many demigods in a single year before! Allright, lets see, led by emotion, I supose it's an Aphrodite thing, very brave, stood up to a goddess. My, you do have quite a bit of courage. You are the first one of your friends not to hide your memories, I supose that can be considered brave in itself. Alright I supose this one is obvious,_ "Gyfindor!" The wizards were so suprised that hers was so normal that they paused for almost thirty seconds before the Gyfindors clapped and welcomed her over to their table.

"Rameirez, Reyna," This got gasps from the entire greaat room as the doors fley open to reveal the prater herself in casual dress with no armor, which was weird for the demigods to see. She strode foreward and took a seat on the stool and the sorting continued with the great hall stuned into silence for nearly two full minutes before the wispering began.

 _A natural leader,_ the sorting hat said in Reyna's head, _clearly brave, cunning to a point, smart, loyal, you could fit in any of the houses. Which would you like to go into?_ Reyna considered this, she had read up on Hogwats in a book Chiron had given her when she'd arrived late the night before and been filled in on everything that was going on and planned to supprize everyone.

 _I don't know, maybe Gryfindor? Or Slytherin? I need to be near the others but I also need to spread out, see what's happening in the other houses as well,_ The hat considered her for a minute then reponded, _Perhaps,_ "Slytherin or Gyfindor!" It called, hardly causing a stir. She stood, glaring at the unhealpful hat and scaing the students. On one hand she could go in Slytherin, the cunning ones with one of the nastyest bullies in the school, and Hazel, who was a fellow Roman and a friend. Or she could go to Gryfindor, with the one witch who knew what they were and her friends, the famos boy and her boyfriend, and Jason and Leo.

She went over to the Slythrin tabel to be greeted by enthusiastic applause, aparently Slytherins aprciated drama.

"Calm down, calm down," Mcgonagall said, holding up her hands for silence, "I understand that this is all rather unusual," grumbling from the students, "but we have to welcome our new students as we would any others," There was more grumbling but no one argued.

The headmaster then launched into a speech after summoning a fest. Reyna, like everyone else, ignored her.

"So, Percy, I hear you officially gave up your position without me. That's very rude you know," She said, her face dead serious, except for her eyes, which were laughing.

Percy caught the subtle tell and responded, "Yeah, I did, I hope you don't have to order my disbandment from the legion as retribution," Percy just _could not_ do serious when his life didn't depend on it.

"I don't know," Reyna said, popping a strawberry into her mouth, "I just might," they shared a laugh, much to the confusion of the wizards and the amusement of the demigods.

"I hate to ruin this touching reunion," said Annabeth, her eyes laughing, "but I think we should discuss," She switched to latin, "the monsters," unbeknownst to the demigods, Draco Malfoy perked up, tuning in to their conversation from just a few seats down on the other side of the table.

"Yeah," Percy said in english, "we probably should," They got up and left, Reyna going to the front first to whisper something in the headmaster's ear before following the others out the door, with Malfoy following just a few seconds later.

"First things first, what's our plan?" Reyna asked in latin.

"I think we should keep a few groups of soldiers here to protect the school, but focus our defences on the two camps, protecting our own should be our first priority," Annabeth suggested as they walked, heading for the room of requirement, which Chiron had told them about.

Reyna noded and thought for a moment, "Yeah, I think you're right. We should protect our own at all cost, maybe that means we should relocate the families in New Rome to somewhere safer, call in a 'you owe me' with the gods," Annabeth noded.

"But what about the rest of the wizarding community?" Percy asked as they pushed through the door of the hidden room. Draco rushed forward, sticking his foot into the door just before it closed and peeking through the crack. On the far left side of the room was a solid round table with three chairs around it, in the center there was a weapons rack with everything from throwing knives to full sized swords and a full training arena. On the left, though, there was a ping pong table with folding chairs surrounding it and snacks piled on top of it.

Percy and Annabeth instinctively went to the left, being more used to that set up for war council. Reyna laughed, "You Greeks seriously do war counsel at a ping pong table?!" She shouted and laughed.

Percy frowned, "Yeah, this way we can kick out any unhelpful augers," That just got Reyna laughing harder.

Annabeth was blushing but she kept her composure and gestured to the training section of the room, "Let's just talk in the training section," They began to walk over, Percy running to the 'Greek' side to collect an armload of snacks before joining the girl in the arena.

Percy dumped his load onto the floor and plopped down, snacking on cheese whiz, "So," He said through a mouth full of food, "I think we should," he swallowed, "set up bases across the country, that way, if we have to send reinforcements, they have relatively safe rest stops along the way. We should have a satyrs working overtime to collect new half-bloods from the schools, I have a feeling the monsters would have no problem killing a bunch of mortal kids to get at a single half-blood," The girls considered this for a few moments.

"But wouldn't that leave the camps with less defences?" Reyna said, giving in and grabbing a bag of chips.

"Well, yeah, but, say we found some half-bloods in Minnesota and Texas, it would take to long to get them to either Camp Half-Blood or camp Jupiter, they'd be sitting ducks. If we had a base setup in Iowa, however, they might have a chance,"

"I see what you mean," Annabeth said, warming up to the idea, "honestly I don't know why we didn't think of this during the last two wars. But, the new bases would attract attacks from the monsters, we would need a good number of troops at each base,"

Draco, seeing they were distracted, slipped in the door and ducked behind a weapons rack, peeking through a hole on the side, which he figured was supposed to be used as a hand hold if one wanted to move the rack.

"I think about a hundred should be enough for a small, easily defendable, base," Reyna said, grabbing a can of pop and taking a sip, "I think I could spare a few of my Romans for that, but can you spare your Greeks?" She asked.

Annabeth noded, "We can spare some, I think coach hedge would be delighted to runa war base, as long as his wife and kid are safe,"

Reyna choked on her pop, " _Wfife and kid?!_ "

Percy and Annabeth laughed, "You didn't know," Percy said, "He got married just before the whole, you know, destroying the wild thing,"

Reyna shook her head, "I don't believe it,"

"Well you should," Percy took a swig of a blue liquid from a glass, which Draco didn't remember seeing before, "otherwise he might pound your head in with his baseball bat," The tree of them shared a laugh and continued to discuss the military bases. Draco was getting bored, not finding anything interesting in what they said.

He already knew they were Greek heroes and all he had found out from this was some of them considered themselves 'Roman', which meant nothing to him. He concluded that they were either insane or they had rejuvenated the old societies and considered themselves heroes. But they had magic. And claimed not to be wizards. _Muggles,_ His brain said, _muggles who got ahold of enchanted items and recreated old Greek and Roman societies around them._ He was convinced he had found his answer, well, for the most part. Something just didn't seem to click. He dismissed it, waving it off as his mind playing trick on him, trying to tell him there was a mystery still. He guessed he had just enjoyed finding things out, being the only one to know the truth, even before the 'golden trio', it was a rare honor after all.

"-thought you two would die down there," Reyna was saying, they had apparently finished planning and started comparing old memories, this should be good.

"What can I say, Annabeth said no every time a monster tried to kill us," Percy responded, earning laughs from the girls.

"He's right though, that seaweed brain would never survive without me," Annabeth give Percy a loving look and Draco felt a pang of jealousy, _why wouldn't anyone look at him that way?_ He shook off his thoughts and listened.

"I have no doubt about that, as I've said before, he wouldn't be able to find his way out of a paper bag without you," The girls laughed.

"Hey!" Percy protested, throwing a handful of chips at them, "Don't forget I completed an entire quest without Annabeth!"

Annabeth looked at him out of the side of her eye, an amused look on her face, "But you did have Thalia, and Grover, and-" She cut herself off and looked down, a tear splashing to the mat. Percy put an arm around her shoulders and held her. Reyna was silent. She clearly didn't know whoever they were talking about, but it was obvious that, whoever it was, they weren't around anymore.

"Zoe Nightshade and Bianca Di Angelo died heroes," Percy whispered in Greek, Draco's translation charms changing the words to English. _Di Angelo?_ Draco searched his mind for where he'd heard that before. It clicked, _the sorting ceremony, Nico Di Angelo,_ And the other name, _Zoe,_ he had heard that before as well, _hadn't Nico said that name before?_ The exact words came back to him, ' _dose Zoe shoot arrows for people who have just gone to the bathroom?!'_ That had been after Will was kidnapped, but if Zoe was dead… No, the name was a coincidence, Zoe was a very common name, wasn't it? Plenty of people were named Zoe, even some of the witches at Hogwarts, but something inside him told him they were the same person. Maybe it was the tone the boys said it with or maybe it was just a coincidence, like logic said.

 _Logic,_ Muggles used that word, not wizards, wizards had magic, magic did everything, logic was irrelevant most of the time. And this was one of those times. Logically, muggles couldn't see Hogwarts, only ruins, but here they were. Logically, enchanting a giant glowing bronze dragon to have a consciousness of its own was impossible, even by wizards standards, but there it was. Logically the ministry took care of any muggles getting ahold of magical objects. Logic said everything he learned about these kids was impossible, or highly improbable, but there they were. No, logic meant nothing. Zoe was a girl who had died, maybe she was a ghost and she fired arrows when someone was in trouble.

 _There, not so illogical is it,_ he said to himself. The others had started talking about plans for when they got back to america, apparently they went to muggle schools, not this 'Chiron's academy' during the school year. Percy lived nearer the magic academy, which he referred to as 'camp' and went a mortal school, in which his step father taught english, whatever that was. Annabeth lived across the country and went to a muggle, or 'mortal', as they called tham, school there. Reyna was the only one to go to school in her camp and ended up explaining her entire schedule to the other two after a while.

Draco got bored and started examining the room, wondering why the two camps were so different, didn't the Greeks and Romans have a similar set up in the old days? He knew that the Greeks definitely didn't sit around pingpong tables and eat snacks at their war councils in the old days, but the real question was, why weren't they more similar? The Greeks and the Romans were fairly similar culture wise as far as Draco knew, so why were they so different? If they developed side by side then they should have at least some things in common. But they didn't, side from the fact that they both seemed to fight the monsters on a regular basis, they were polar opposites. Reyna had an air of authority and composure that the Greeks simply lacked. He had noticed a bit of it in Hazel, so he figured she was from the Roman camp, and a slight hint of it from Jason and heaps of it from Frank, but everyone else simply radiated a sort of laid-back calmness, a readiness to just joke around or talk, that the romans lacked.

Draco froze. They were headed his way. They had apparently decided that they were done talking and were headed for the exit, which was right next to him. If they reached the door they would see him for sure, unless they were all mysteriously lacking in peripheral vision, he would be spotted. He gulped they would gut him when they found him, he had seen them fight, he didn't have enough faith in his wand against their swords to risk it. He looked around wildly for a place to hide.

He spotted another weapons rack a few feet away to his left, if he could get there the 'heroes' wouldn't spot him. But if he moved they would notice him, he needed a distraction. Thankfully, one presented itself.

The air suddenly became thick with magic and the room got colder. The magic thickened until it was a visible _thing,_ a mist hanging in the air and rolling across the ground. Draco rushed over to the weapons stand and hid himself while the others were distracted, their eyes being drawn to the source of the mist on the other side of the room, next to the ping pong table. The air shimmered and the mist solidified, forming a shape. The 'heroes' had drawn their weapons and were all in fighting stances. Draco had no idea where Percy and Annabeth had managed to hide swords in their robes but Annabeth had a wicked looking bleached white saber and Percy had the same glowing bronze one Draco had seen him fight with earlier. Reyna had a pair of long daggers.

When Draco saw what the mist had formed, his blood ran cold.


	14. Chapter 14

Nico hated time travel. He closed his eyes this time in an attempt to lessen its effect on him. It didn't work. His stomach did flip flops and his head spun as his senses overloaded with everything that ever has, or will, happen.

They appeared in a dark hall, literally. The walls were made of obsidian and stygian iron. The only light came from bioluminescent crystals that hung from thing chains on the walls. Ever ripped one of said crystals off and hung it around her neck.

"Where are we?" Nico asked, keeping his voice low.

"Nowhere, or everywhere," she shook her head, "this place was created to exist outside of space and time, the perfect hiding place," Nico nodded, resolving to save his boyfriend first, ask questions later.

"You bargained for a clue and he just gave you the answer, why," Nico asked, figuring it was important.

"Believe me, this place will be hard enough to get out of as is, think of it like the underworld, everyone knows how to get in, hardly anyone knows how to get out," Nico nodded again and followed her as she made her way, silently, down the corridor. Neither said a word for a long time as Ever led him around twists and turns, which Nico soon gave up on trying to keep track of.

Eventually they started to hear voices and Ever slowed. She felt along the smooth wall and put shed in an invisible door, pulling Nico in after her and closing the door after her.

"I know what you're going to ask, and yes, I have been here before, no I will not tell you my whole life story, and this room has been a hiding place of mine for years. Now, to the important stuff," she started to pace the sizable room, which was furnished like a childs hideout with blankets and christmas lights everywhere, along with childhood drawings and books from every stage, from 'green eggs and ham' to 'Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children'.

"My brother will have taken him to the great hall, no that was not named after the one at Hogwarts but vice versa, it was named after this place, no I will not explain," she took a deep breath and continued in rapid fire mode, making Nico wish he had notepad and pen to write some of this down, "This is the only place in existance, or out of existence, whatever, where I am mostly powerless. Because this place exists out of space and time, as I told you, I can't just time travel back to before we made a mess of things and do things better. We have one shot here, no do-overs,"

Nico nodded to show he understood, which he didn't, and she continued, "I know for a fact that you won't like what you see when you get there," her tone softened, "They probably hurt Will pretty bad, if he's not dead," Nico caught his breath. He tried to deny it. But he believed her. The monsters would have no reason to leave him unharmed, Hades, they hardly had any reason to keep him alive!

Nico fought back tears, an unfamiliar sensation, and noted for her to go on.

Ever closed her eyes, a single multi colored tear running down her cheek before she continued, he tone betraying no emotion. _Did I teach her that too?_ Nico thought absently.

"When Damon said 'you-know-who' he meant an enemy of our fathers, we don't know her name. She claims to have been a part of the last couple of wars and I doubt she knows who Damion is,only that he is bound to her service through a poorly worded oath on the river styx," Nico was about to respond when he heard a voice from the hall. Both him and Ever held up a finger for silence at the same time.

"-kid was great," someone was saying outside, "I hope we get to see it again tonight, it's so boring here, at least that's something to do,"

Another voice chimed in, "Yeah, I hope we get to see him again, who did the lady say he was?"

"Don't matter, he's just some demigod,"

The second voice sounded nervous, "Well, yeah, but isn't he one of those Greeks? You know what happened to Atlas when _he_ took one of them,"

The first voice sounded completely unconcerned, "Atlas was a fool! He took the girlfriend of the spawn of Poseidon, we just took some random healer," Nico's fists clenched, his sister had died on that quest, and the _random healer_ they took was the boyfriend of the son of Hades. These monsters were in for a surprise. If Nico hadn't been in the mood to slaughter some monsters before, he definitely was now.

The voices faded down the hall. Ever turned to Nico, a hard look in her eyes, which had gone as black as the walls.

"We are going to kick their asses," She said, opening an invisible cupboard and pulling out an assortment of horrifying looking weapons. She had blades of every kind, vials of greek fire, about a dozen different kinds of guns, and what looked like grenades. She tossed him some of the weapons as she went, strapping a pair of swords to her back, putting two handguns into holsters, which were a part of her twin sword sheath, which strapped to her back. He put on a belt, which she loaded with all sorts of weapons. Nico followed suit, putting on the belt and sheaths she passed him, all of which were exactly his size, and loading himself with dozens of different kinds of weapons.

"Okay, do you know how to handle a guns?" She asked when she finished making herself into a walking armory. Nico shook his head. Ever proceed to give him the fastest crash course in history on gun safety. When she finished he repeats everything back to her while demonstrating everything she had shown him.

She nodded, "Alright, I know it's not ideal to go into battle without being a weapons master, but it'll do. Over this way," she pointed to a wall which was, of course, blank, "is a passage to the great hall. It will bring us out in a blind corner near the stage, if we manipulate the mist to make us into monsters, like your friends did during that one battle with the giants, we can blend in with the crowd and split up. If we launch two attacks, slightly spread out, we should be able to get the element of surprise. I'll attack first, you join the wave of monsters who will try to kill me, just don't use any of my weapons against me, they're enchanted against my godly parent's magic, long story. Anyway, you make your way to the stage, where I expect Will will be, you get him here then help me get out so I can get us all out of here,"

Nico nodded, loading the last set of throwing knives onto his belt, "Let's go then," Ever led him to the wall where she pushed open the invisible door and crawled into a tunnel. As Nico followed he saw the mist solidify around Ever in front of him, turning her into a cyclops. He expected the same was happening to him as he crawled along, the cramped space making it hard to move as Ever's crystal lit their way.

Finally they made it out at another invisible door and into the blind corner Ever had talked about. When Nico got out he became instantly homicidal. He was to the right of the stage from the audience's point of view, and he had a perfect view of the stage. He saw the pillar first, once white and pristein, now splattered with demigod blood. Will leaned against it, his breathing heavy and his back a mess of bloody slashes. Nico shook with rage, his hand tightening around the invisible hilt of his stygian iron sword.

He duly registered Ever making her way to the center of the crowd. But his eyes were glued to Will, bloody and broken and a stage while monsters cheered around him. He saw the robed figure behind him with the whip and his rage sharpened into a blade, something tangible to use against his enemies.

He bit back the scream that rose in his throat when she raised the whip. He held himself back when his muscles tried to lurch forward as it was lowered. He failed to restrain himself when he heard it tear through Will's skin. Will didn't scream. Nico screamed for him.

The son of Hades rushed forward, cutting through monsters like they were made of clay as he rushed onto the stage. Most of the monsters were focused of Ever, who was fighting like a demon freshly sprung from tartarus in the middle of the crowd, but whoever was left rushed at Nico, trying to stop him. They all met unsavory fates. The place, wherever they were, may have been outside of space and time, but nothing escaped the underworld. Fissures opened up under the monsters, swallowing them down into the pit. Nico didn't even notice his power drain, his energy was replenished by anger.

He got to the staged and ran the woman through, slicing her whip in half and thrusting his sword through her chest in one smooth motion. She collapsed, the veil falling off her face as she did. Nico barely had time to register who it was before rushing to Will, scooping him into his arms and casting a wave of fear over the monsters. He slipped away in the chaos and got back to Ever's secret room.

He lowered Will onto a pile of blankets turning him so his back was up. Nico swallowed. It was awful. Nico didn't dwell on it, acting instead in instinct. He found a water bottle of nectar in the cabinet, which Ever had left open, and poured a little over the slashes. The blood washed away and they healed, partially. They became thick, jagged, white scars. Nico swallowed the lump in his throat and turned Will over, trying to make him as comfortable as possible on the blankets.

Will was unconscious, probably had passed out from the pain, but Nico woke him up, tossing off his mist disguise and pouring nectar past Will's lips.

"Hey death boy," Will said with a smile, his voice hoarse and weak, "I knew you were coming,"

Nico fought back tears, "Of course I was stupid, I couldn't expect you to get out on your own,"

Will laughed, "You're late,"

Nico couldn't hold back the tears any longer, they spilled over his cheeks, "I should have saved you, I shouldn't have left, I shou-" Will cut him off, "You couldn't have done anything," He smiled weakly, "You found me, even _I_ couldn't find me," Nico laughed through his tears, unable to conjure up a response.

Just then Ever burst through the passage and sealed it behind her, covered head to toe in blood and monster dust. She collapsed to the floor, breathing hard and incapable of speech. She dragged herself over to the boys and knelt next to Will.

"Is he okay?" She asked, her voice horas.

"He'll heal," Nico said sinking against the wall, exhausted.

"Good…" Ever trailed off as her eyes unfocused and she swaye, "that's...good…" she fell, her muscles giving out under her. Nico lurched toward her, gabbing the bottle of nectar and tipping it against her lips as gently as he could as he lifts her head. Her neck was sticky with blood and her hair was caked in monster dust, making Nico wonder, _how was she still alive?_ He had been filled with rage and adrenaline, along with what he supposed was the blessing of Hades running through him. She might have been on an adrenaline rush and might have had her godly parents' blessing, which he doubted because of all her talk of him being a monster, but, regardless of all that, she should still be dead. One does not simply, walk into a room full of monsters and survive. If you were that outnumbered, you were dead, end of story.

Nico got her to swallow the nectar and watched as her smaller wounds healed. She looked awful. He couldn't see all of her injuries, but the deep gashes on her legs and arms were obvious. Her coat was torn up and there was an arrow stuck straight through her shoulder. Nico snapped off the point and pulled out the shaft, tossing them aside. He tore off pieces of the nearest blanket and used the pieces as bandages to stop the blood that poured from her wounds.

~oOo~

Will woke a while later to see Nico passed out on the floor once all of Will and Ever's wounds had been wrapped in the tattered remains of the blankets that cluttered the room. He pushed himself into a sitting position and put a hand on Nico's shoulder. Nico bolted upright, sword ready. Will didn't flinch.

"Good morning death breath," he croaked, blinking the sleep from his eyes. Relief flooded his boyfriend's face and Nico wrapped his arms around him. That caught Will off guard. Nico _hated_ physical contact. He must have been really shaken up to make him act this out of character. Will returned the hug, burying his face in Nico's tangled mess of black hair.

"I love you," Will whispered softly.

"I love you too,"

~oOo~

It was days later when Ever woke up. Will treated her wounds, which he said covered her entire body, while Nico searched for hidden cabinets. He found plenty. Apparently Ever had stocked the place for the apocalypse, which, he supposed, this was pretty close.

He found rations and he and Will split them sparingly, not knowing how long they would have to wait in that room before Ever was strong enough to get them out. They split the room, hanging the blankets from the ceiling to create an isolated area for Will to work. He was there often, removing the pieces of snapped off swords, arrows, daggers, and spears that had gotten themselves lodged in her body. At one point Will had to rig up a makeshift transfusion to give her some of his blood when she needed some, he was O negative, the universal donor.

When she finally did wake up Nico was watching her. He and Will had taken to sleeping in shifts so she didn't die in the night when Will couldn't help her. Not that they could tell if it was day or night, but they made educated guesses, it was hard to tell with time travel.

"What happened?" She asked, not bothering to try moving.

"You survived, by some miracle," Nico responded, half hoping she would explain.

She laughed weakly, "Did I? Good for me," she coughed, covering her mouth with her hand. When she pulled it away it was splattered with blood, "Can I have some necatar or ambrosia?" She asked and Nico handed her the water bottle.

"How did you survive?" He asked, no longer able to keep himself from asking.

"I was wondering how long you'd be able to keep from asking questions," There was no accusation in her tone, just a weary statement. He thought he heard an undertone of defeat as well, and some small part of Nico wished he had. If she was defeated she would give up her secrets. He banished those thoughts. If people asked about his secrets he would never get any peace.

"I guess I do owe you some explanation, you get one secret, but first, Will, is he okay?" She asked, her eyes were closed but the concern in her voice was strong, and baffling, until Nico remembered she was from his, and Will's, future.

Nico was about to decide on a secret when Will came into the sectioned off area.

"Hey, you're awake!" He exclaimed, rushing over to check her and Nico's bandages, "I gotta admit, I was worried for a while there," He shook his head and loosened a bandage on her left arm, which was above her banket. Will had removed her coat, and Nico had found six just like it in one of her hidden compartments.

"She offered to tell us one secret," Nico told Will, not meeting his eyes for fear of what he would find there. If Nico showed just how eger he was to hear the secret, he didn't want to know what Will would think of him. No one should want someone to expose himself as much as Nico wanted Ever to, especially not someone with secrets of their own.

"Okay," Will said absently, "which of her secrets is she planning on telling us?" He asked, directing the question at Ever.

"Your choice," she responded, glancing down at them, her eyes a mix of worry and fear. _What could possibly scare someone like her this bad?_ Nico asked himself, knowing the answer. He was, after all, terrified of his own secrets, and he had claimed the title of 'ghost king' when he was ten.

Will considered her words for a minute before speaking in a soft tone, "How about your godly parent, it seems like that's a big deal," She visibly winced and he added quickly, "But you don't have to! You can tell us something else if you have to tell us anything,"

She shook her head, "It's called a silent oath, if I say I'll tell you what you want to hear I have to comply, it's part of the retribution I get for all the powers I've...acquired," she paused, taking a deep breath, "When I tell you, I need you to know a few things. First, I have to tell you everything, don't try to stop me, that includes the blessings I got from other deities and such. And second, I need you to promise not to kill me," Both Nico and will started at this, _kill her?_ Why would they do that?

"I promise we won't kill you," Will said, still confused.

Ever noded and pushed herself up into a sitting position, despite Will's protests and look each of them over, "I'll miss your ignorance," She said before launching into her story, speaking quietly and not meeting their eyes as she spoke.

"I was born in ancient Greece," she started softly, "I didn't know who my father was at first, of when and where I was born. As it turns out, I developed my powers quickly and as a baby managed to travel myself to modern Manhattan. I grew up in a time loop of the second titan war, always ending with the battle of Manhattan and starting again three years earlier, so I learned early on what effects time travel has on people," She paused and took a shaky breath as if relieving a painful memory, "I found out later who had set the loop and why. It was my father, who wanted my help with his war,"

The realization dawned on the boys at the same time. _No._ Nico thought, _Not him._ But she confirmed it.

"Kronos is my father. That's why I can time travel, why I look the way I do, you know, the whole eye thing. It's a time glitch of sorts, my genetics are in constant flux, switching between timelines constantly. I have multiple mothers, see, Kronos was able to manifest himself into a physical body once before, in ancient Greece, as I said, and when he did he played tricks with time, testing the limits of his powers in the weak mortal form. In that time he, um, was with multiple women at the same moment in time, the result is me,"

Will and Nico digested this, slightly disgusted, but these were Greek deities, almost everything they did in ancient Greece was slightly disgusting.

"Anyway, as you could probably guess from the fact that you won, I didn't do as I was told. This got me a one way ticket to tartarus and the hatred of every monster and demigod to fight in that war, on either side. Though, to be fair, you guys didn't find out about me until after your second war, then you guys got to join in hating me. Except you two for some reason, you didn't try to kill me on sight once you knew who my father was,"

She looked at them curiously as they tried to process this new information. Nico seemed to understand faster than his boyfriend.

"It's because I was just like you," he spoke up, "I was, am, shunned by a lot of people for my powers and parentage, and Will's just the idiot who sees past that," Will put an arm around Nico's shoulders and squeezed, giving him a loving look.

"Well, none of that will happen now anyway, so I'll skip to the part where I got even you two to hate me," this got her varying looks from the boys but she ignored them and went on, "When I turned ten I decided I needed a more permanent family, other than the constant foster homes and avoiding my doppelgangers. So I found the one deity that remained neutral at all times, one that I found out later, you hate," Nico felt a pang of irrational anger, _Eros,_ he knew that she was young and desperate at the time, but that love god had ruined his life more completely than anyone else, and he wasn't in the mood for forgiveness.

Ever avoided his eyes, suddenly finding the makeshift bandages covering her entire torso fascinating, "Yeah, I went to Euros. He raised me, taught me to fight, he and Psyche, they were my parents, they were the ones to give me my first godly blessing, and the reason I got any others after that," She shook her head as if to clear away a memory and continued, "I gained to power to wield Eros' bow and enchant his arrows, the same way he does," Nico had to force himself not to back away from her.

"That's why the gods fear me, right now half of them are madly in love with the furniture in the throne room, and the other half gave me formal apologies for Zeus's idiocy," This gotta laugh form Will, but Nico was still too stunned to recognize the humor.

"Anyway, I have wings from Eros, the price of his powers, never being able to blend in with demigods, always being to odd one out, in exchange for my life. They would kill me you know, the gods, they would kill me if it didn't mean the wrath of Eros. but I don't suppose that matters now, considering I managed to wipe myself from existence when I went to warn you, Damion went back and prevented me from being born. But it didn't have the effect he hoped. I got blessings from a lot of gods, titans, a few giants and even the pit himself, as it turns out, this pretty much eradicated my mortal soul, and you can't just wipe and immortal from existence, Kronos tried it on the gods, it doesn't work,"

Will gave her a puzzled look, "Wait, so you're…"

"Immortal? No. I can take a lot more than a mortal or demigod could, but I'm only about three fourths immortal now, not fully, and I have a ton of weaknesses, those aren't part of the deal and I don't want to make killing me to easy for you later on," there she goes again, assuming she was sentencing herself to death, "In all I've been blessed by Zeus with immunity to most lightning, except the master bolt. Ares gave me endurance, Bores gave me the ability to turn my wings into a cold breeze,"

Will snapped his fingers, "So that's what that was!"

She nodded, "Her swore on the styx to leave me alone, Hephaestus gave me the coats, they serve as armor against most attacks, but they can only take so many hits before they wear down and, well, you saw what happened to the one I _was_ wearing," She gestured to the heap of tattered, bloody fabric that had been tossed into a corner when Nico couldn't rip it into bandages.

"Anyway, Athena gave me useful crafts after flatly refusing to give me battle strategy and, well, she's one of the few goddesses I still respect. Dionysus made the same promise as Hera, which has been more helpful than you would think," She paused and took a breath, "Poseidon gives me protection at sea, except from his children, whom he seems to have a problem with dissing, I get it, I've got a kid hopping around through space and time someplace, cute boy, nice, a psychopath, but nice. Anyway," she went on, ignoring the looks she got from the boys, "I got Demeter to do me a favor, no I will not tell you about that, and Hermes helped stab;ize my powers. At that time I couldn't use them very well because I didn't have a good teacher, you know, with the only willing person at the time being with a completely separate set of powers. So the god of travel helped me learn,"

She opened her mouth to continue but blushed and hid her face instead. She worked up her courage and went on in a quiet voice, "And Aphrodite…" She trailed off, shaking her head and taking a shaky breath once again, "She...um...well she didn't give me the regular blessing. It wasn't until later that I learned what her usual blessing was, beauty or true love, but I didn't get either of those things. She decided to make me," she cringed, "Eros' adopted sister," Ever looked up to see the stunned expressions on Will and Nico's faces.

She looked away. She just knew that Nico would hate her now, especially when he learned what she did. She fidgeted with the bandages on her wrists and waited until the boys had digested her statements. She hated this. She was so used to keeping her past secret, and she had had an excuse to last time the boys saw her. But at the time she had been born, she had a past, or future, depending on how you looked at it. But now she had none of that, even her psychopathic son had been wiped from existence, which she was bummed about, she like him.

"Umm, so I did a few favors for her and Eros, including," she refused to look Nico in the eye, "firing an arrow into the heart of a ten year old boy,"

Realization dawned on Nico's face. His body shook with rage and Will had to physically restrain him to keep him from ripping her apart, "Do you have any idea," He said through gritted teeth, "What that arrow put me through,"

She cringed away from him, head down in shame, "I won't make excuses," She said quietly, "I didn't know who you were or what would happen, just that the man who raised me asked me to do something simple and that your kind tried to have me executed for being born," Nico relaxed slightly but his eyes hardened, no longer showing her the sympathy she had seen in them before.

"Apollo still owes me a favor, and Artemis offered me shelter with the hunters, though I suppose that only accounts for the specific group she's with, science the others would kill me on sight if they knew who I was," Will had the same hard look in his eyes as Nico. She didn't blame them. She deserved their hatred, especially for the things she didn't tell them.

"Hades was a...special case. Instead of threatening him, I befriended him. He doesn't get along with his siblings, and neither did I, so we had that in common. I have a room in his palace and a position judging souls, I took Minos's spot, you know, cause he was a horrible person when he was alive and should never have gotten the position in the first place," She finished with that, leaving out everything she could get away with.

Ever pushed herself into a standing position, receiving no help from the boys and offered her hand to help them. Will ignored it and got up, dragging Nico after him. Ever lost her last spark of hope and took Nico's shoulder, "Focus," was all she said before they disappeared, shimmering back into existence in the room of requirement.

 **Hey y'all sorry this one took so long, that last scene was difficult for me, because, you know, it's hard not to make that boring. Anyway, I'm sorry if I failed in making that last bit interesting for you, I did my best. Please review, I'm trying to improve as a writer and I depend on you guys to help with that. If you are afraid of offending me, I may have said this already, but I am not even close to being easily offended. It would be a different story with my older sister, but with me, you have to press some very specific buttons for me to get upset. But if your problem is that you don't find any fault with my work...pick up a book please.**

 **Anyway, that's my bit for the day I hope you all had a better X-mas, or whatever holiday you celebrate, than I did. Have a great rest of your day, or evening, whenever you're reading this.**


	15. Chapter 15

Draco watched as Will, Nico, and ever appeared out of thin air. In a school where no one was supposed to be able to apparate. He clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle the gasp that tried to escape.

"Nico!" Reyna shouted and ran over to the boy, who was partially wrapped in bloodstained strips of patterned cloth. The boy in question jerked away from the mystery girl, who was being supported by Will. Her eyes were filled with hurt, but understanding, as if she blamed herself as much as he blamed her.

Reyna and Nico launched into a rapid fire Q&A session, half of witch was in whispered tones of cryptic wording. Why did the Americans do that? Why was being 'Greek heroes' so bad?

"Umm, a little help," Will said, cutting off Draco's thoughts.

"Oh!" Percy said and rushed over to help him lowed Ever into a chair. The mystery girl looked awful. She had random stripps of black fabric wrapped around every one of her limbs and covering her entire torso, every one of which was stained crimson. She had her black jacket slung over one arm and was fiddling with one of her braids, the one that happened to have an engagement ring hanging off the end.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked, picking a first aid kit off the floor and handing it to Will, who peeled off one of the bandages and began to clean and re-bandage the wound.

"Will was being held at some kind of base, _Ever,_ " He spat her name like venom, "got us in and helped get Will back,"

Percy's eyebrows drew together, "Why do you hate her all the sudden?" He asked, his eyes darting between the two. Draco noticed howEver visibly flinched when Nico spat her name, how she folded into herself and became unusually timid. She looked like a defeated soldier, a captured warrior with no way to escape.

"She gave us one of her secrets," Was all Nico said, glaring at the defeated girl.

Annabeth looked to Will, who had finished with the wound on her bicep and had moved on to her forearm.

"She told us why the gods fear her, and a little about her past. As it turns out she's responsible for one of the things that made Nico's life miserable for years," They waited for him to elaborate but Ever looked bad enough as is. Draco figured the healer didn't want to make it worse.

Ever hissed as Will touched a wet cloth to her shoulder, where Draco guessed there was a cut of some sort, but he couldn't be sure.

"I was raised by the love pair, I'm the reason Nico developed his, um," She looked up, her eyes flicking between Nico and Percy.

"Oh...OHHH," Percy said, realization drawing on his face, "So you can…" She nodded looking down in shame.

"I'm sorry," She said quietly, "But when the person who raised you asks for a simple favor, and that favor effects someone from a group of people who had been actively trying to kill you since the day they found out who your father was, you do it. I didn't care what it would do to him. I didn't care how it affected any of you, only that I made the people who raised me proud. You half-bloods can accept a child of the underworld just fine. But a daughter of time? No. I was, am, a threat," She looked up at the stunned heroes though her braids, which clinked together when she moved.

"Go ahead," She said after a pause. Confused looks spread across the other's faces, "Do what you did before, kill me," She closed her eyes, "You almost succeeded last time, if you do it now you won't have to worry about me betraying you later," When she opened her eyes they were desperate. Almost as if she _wanted_ them to kill her.

"No," They said together, except Nico, who was frozen with a look of shock on his face.

"We won't just kill you," Reyna said, "not without a reason. Do you plan on betraying us?" Ever was silent, a tear slipping out from between her eyelids and dripping off her lashes.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," She whispered, her muscles trembling. She looked up, her eyes pleading, "Just kill me," They shook their heads. Then all hell broke loose.

~oOo~

Hades paced his throne room. This was not good. He had just gotten the complete soul of Tom Riddle and now...He yelled in frustration and slammed his fist against the wall. _Another escaped soul._ Great. He turned to the skeletal messenger standing in the middle of the room.

"Send the furies after him before he can get out of the underworld, if he escapes I want the furies to continue their pursuit, but I'll have someone else after him as well," The messenger noded and scurried out of the throne room as fast as possible. Hades ran his fingers through his hair. That Riddle always managed to cause him grief didn't he? It was as if he was actively _trying_ to get the worst punishment in the underworld. Hades would be sure to deliver that.

Not an hour later another messenger walked into the throne room. Hades put down the clipboard he had been doing paperwork on and gestured for the messenger to speak.

"I have come to inform you that the soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle has escaped the underworld and is in hiding somewhere in Scotland," Hades resisted the urge to banish the messenger to tartarus on the spot. He took a deep breath, recalling the saying 'don't shoot the messenger' as he stood, waving the skeleton away before he changed his mind and waving his hand to summon his overworld agent, as he like to call him in his head.

Nico melted out of the shadows, bandages stretching the length on his arms from his wrists and disappearing under his t-shirt.

The son of Hades crossed his arms, "What," He said. Well he wasn't in a good mood.

"I need you to do something for me," Hades said, fiddling with the cuffs of his robes.

Nico rolled his eyes, "Of course you do, what is it?" He asked.

Hades ignored the disrespectful tone and continued, "A soul has escaped the fields of punishment, apparently he managed to overpower one of the furies and run to the mortal world,"

"And you want me to collect him,"

"Yes, his name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, in the wizarding world he's known as 'Voldemort' and is known as one of the most powerful wizards ever. That's not even a little true of course, but mortals have a habit of exaggerating to make things seem scarier than they should be,"

Nico was frozen, a haunted look in his eyes, "Tommy?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I guess you could call him that-" Hades cut himself off when he saw the look on his son's face. Nico _knew_ this Tom Riddle. Hades thought back to before the casino, back to his other attempts to protect his children. He had put Nico and Bianca into an orphanage before he had tried the hotel. He tried to remember who had befriended his children. It wasn't hard, not many kids wanted to be around them, even when Nico had been a hyperactive little kid, he had been a little creepy with the shadows clinging to him when he was 's where he had met Tom Riddle. That's when he made his first friend.

Hades realized what he was asking his son to do. He was asking his son to condemn his only childhood friend to an eternity of punishment. But he had already asked, if Hades repealed his request now he would become the laughing stock of Olympus. No god was supposed to care that much about their demigod children's' feelings, and the scorn of his family would last a lot longer than the life of his son.

He swallowed down his guilt and said, "He is somewhere in Scotland, I wouldn't be surprised if he were near the school, he has never been known for his brilliant plans," Nico nodded in understanding, his face slack and drained of blood. It was as if Nico were the one who was being hunted down. Hades waved him back into the shadows and sent him back to Hogwarts, trying to convince himself that the blood-drained face of his son didn't matter.

 **I know this one was super short, sorry I got busy. I saw 'The Greatest Showman' though. It's REALLY GOOD. If you haven't seen it you really should, the soundtrack is the best part, I've been listening to it on repeat for the last six hours. Please review, I need more reviews for this thing, it's hart to explain, but basically I have a sort of bet going on. Against myself. So the** **gist** **of it is, if I get more reviews I post a new chapter sooner, also something else, but I can't tell y'all about that just yet (** **spoilers** **) and if I get less, well I post later and don't get to write in that thing that keeps popping into my head. You know how sometimes you get an idea and it just kinda** **gnaws** **at the back of your mind until it's all you can think about? Well that's what this one thing is for me and I'm debating giving it it's own little book or putting it in this one, you decide, is this story already to crowded with stuff going on or dose it need more?**

 **Hope y'all are having a good week, tomorrow's-wait-it's 3:49...Today's new year's eve! Last day of 2017! Can't say I'll miss this year, I think we can all agree that it was a mess, for me a little more so what with my entire life being uprooted and all, but a new year won't change that. Ug, 'adults' give me a headache.**

 **Anyway Happy new year!**


	16. Chapter 16

Piper and Jason had found a secluded area in the forbidden forest where they could sit in the trees and look at the stars. Jason had taken them up to the topmost branches of one of the tallest trees they could find and was steadying her on the thickest of the branches.

"Don't let me fall, superman," She teased, eyes sparkling.

"I wouldn't dream of it," The two of them laughed as Jason situated himself on the branch across from hers.

"Do you think there will ever be a time without wars to fight?" Piper asked, sobering the mood.

"I don't know," Jason answered as he looked at the stars, "But one of these days someone's gonna' start a war and we won't have to be a part of it," his voice was wistful, as if describing a pleasant dream.

"Don't kid yourself," Piper said and leaned her head against the tree, "We'll always be called to arms, the only choice we'll get is if we stay at home and retire or if we go and fight another war,"

Jason was about to respond when his head suddenly snapped up and turned to the castle. Piper followed suit, having heard the explosion as well. Jason grabbed his girlfriend around the waist and launched them both out of the tree.

~oOo~

Back at the castle, the entire school was woken up by the sound of an explosion from the seventh floor. Students and teachers flooded the halls as Half-bloods armed themselves and rushed to the danger. First years were rounded up and rushed outside, where the hunters and some of the campers formed a protective circle around them.

Hazel was the first to the site. The hall was littered with rubble and the walls were barely there at all. A gaping hole was blown into one wall, leading to a sheer drop. The dust was just beginning the clear but Hazel was able to make out the forms of three unconscious demigods and one wizard, all sprawled out among the stones.

She rushed over to the forms and knelt beside the closest of them, checking for a pulse. She breathed a sigh of relief, it was faint, but there was a slight pulse in the demigods wrist. She flipped the body over and gasped, it was Annabeth. She called over an Apollo camper and gave her friend over, rushing to the other two bodies and identifying Will and Nico. she passed them to waiting medics and checked the wizard last.

Draco had been the farthest away and taken the least damage of the four. Hazel knelt next to him and felt his wrist, finding a steady pulse. She laid him flat on his back and was about to call over a teacher when he suddenly sat up, coughing spluttering.

When he was able to breathe again he scampered back a few feet in a panic before realizing where he was. He looked around for a few seconds as if to process whatever had happened before he spotted Hazel.

"You," He said accusingly, "You lot need to explain yourselves before you get us all killed-" he dissolved into a coughing fit and regained his composure, "What are you? What does it mean 'you'll accept the children of-" he coughed, "-the underworld'? And what does it mean Ever's the 'daughter of time'? Who are you people?!" He had another coughing fit as the blood drained from Hazel's face. _The daughter of time._ She only knew one deity who had anything to do with time. Kronos. Ever, the mysterious heir bringer of the future and the only demigod the gods seemed to fear, was the daughter of the king of the Titans.

Hazel was frozen in her thoughts when Draco shook her out.

"You owe us all answers," He said, glaring at her, "and I expect you to deliver,"

Hazel nodded, surprising herself, "I think _you_ can have your answers for now, you rest of the school can wait for the time being,"

Draco looked like he wanted to argue but thought the better of it, if he was getting answers he didn't know when he would get the chance to get them again. Hazel stood and helped him to his feet, "Follow me," she said and set off down the hall at a brisk pace, not bothering to check if he was following.

Draco scampered after her, amazed at how quick the small girl could walk. She led him through the winding halls and staircases, until she finally led him outside. Toward the forbidden forest.

"Um, we aren't supposed to go in there, it's dangerous," he felt a little silly telling her that, having seen her fight.

"Oh please," she answered, "the woods at camp are _way_ more dangerous than this, and there are ten-year-olds who play capture the flag in those. Well, technically it's the whole camp, which includes some kids younger than that, but that's not my point," She glanced over at Draco, whose mouth was hanging open, "Close your mouth, you look stupid,"

"So that's why you're all so good at fighting?" He asked and she rolled her eyes.

"I'll answer your questions once we get further into the woods, that way we don't get any evesdroppers," She led him silently deeper and deeper into the forest until she found a small clearing about a mile in.

"Alright then, before we start, I need you to do something for me,"

He resisted the urge to groan, "I thought you said you would give me answers," He said, crossing his arms.

"And I will, but I need to make sure you won't tell anyone first," she took a deep breath and cut him off before he could speak, "Repeat after me," she said, "'I swear on the river Styx I will not share anything I learn tonight in this wood from Hazel Levesque without her, any of the seven, Nico, or Reyna's direct permission,'" He repeated the oath with a quizzical expression, wondering what kind of spell this was.

When he finished thunder rumbled in the clear sky and Hazel looked satisfied, "Alright, now, what do you want to know?" She asked, plopping down on a rock.

Draco took a seat on the grass and asked, "First off, who are you?"

She looked slightly hesitant but replied after only the briefest of pauses, "Hazel Levesque, half-blood daughter of Pluto and, therefore, one of the children of the underworld you were asking about earlier,"

His eyebrows drawn together, "But...isn't Pluto a planet?"

Hazel rolled her eyes, "You sound like Percy. Yes, and no. Pluto isn't classified as a planet anymore, but that's not what I meant anyway. I meant the Roman god Pluto, lord of the underworld and precious metals under the earth. I'm his daughter,"

Draco was still sceptical, "But that would mean the Roman gods are real," He said as if he'd caught her in a lie.

She just rolled her eyes again, "Yes, they are, and the Greek ones too, most of the demigods here are Greek, except myself, Reyna, Frank, and Jason, we're the children of Roman gods, the rest are all Greek," She went on to explain both the wars, though the second titan war was still a little bit of a mystery to her because she'd only taken part in the Roman side, which was significantly less prominent than the Greek side, but she did manage to explain most of Percy and Annabeth's role, though she'd never never really asked much about Luke so she didn't know anything more than he was manipulated into betraying his camp and had been a friend to both Annabeth and Percy.

"So," Draco said when she'd finished, "You expect me to believe that there have been two wars over in America and none of us over here knew about it?"

Hazel nodded, "And if you don't it's your problem, because none of us knew about your little Voldemort problem until Chiron told us, he's a center by the way, the wheelchair is a disguise," Draco nodded, finding that to be the least mind-blowing thing she had said all night.

"How can Nico just sort of show up places, even when the room's been sealed?" He asked finally.

Hazel gave him a suspicious, almost angry look, "How would you know that my brother could do that?" She asked tightly.

"Umm, I may have, sort of, tried to question Will," Hazel looked like she was about to attack him but calmed herself before she could decapitate him.

"I hope he scared the living shyst out of you," She said and Draco dared not ask about the wording.

"He can shadow travel, he can do that as a son of Hades, I can't so don't ask. I can summon gems and things from the earth and I'm really good underground, not that that helped when I got myself killed, but you know, it was helpful in the house of Hades so there's that," Draco didn't think he wanted to know what she was talking about.

"Next question, I've heard several people reference 'the seven', who are they and why are they so special?"

Hazel explained to him about the prophecy of seven and their role in bringing down Geia, making Draco eat his sarcastic words.

"Umm," Draco continued hurriedly, trying to keep at least some of his composure, "Who is the mystery girl, you people looked as surprised as we wizards were to see her, but she addressed your brother directly,"

Hazel's eyes flashed but she relented, slightly, "We still don't know much about her, except that she just kinda shows up and changes things, like telling Nico not to expose ourselves, apparently she thought that would start a war and we would win, but be too weak to defend ourselves against the monsters when they attacked,"

Draco looked at her incredulously, "So you think you're powerful enough to defeat the entire wizarding world?" He clearly didn't understand the concept of 'gods' and 'monsters'.

"Yes," She quipped, getting fed up with his ignorance, "I don't think you quite understand," She twisted the mist to show several copies of herself, all surrounding Draco, "If I can do this," She said through one of her doppelgangers, who was, of course, not really there, "Imagine an army of us,"

Draco rushed at the original, passing through her harmlessly. She couldn't help it, she laughed, making all of the copies mirror her. The effect was a creepy circle of laughing Hazels, a trick worth of Hecate. Draco stared wide-eyed at the circle, which he had mysteriously found himself back in the middle of.

"I may be one of the more powerful demigods," she said through another ganger, "but some of the Hecate, the goddess of magic's children, could destroy this place in their sleep," Draco gulped. He understood why they were so dangerous now. He had lost faith in his kind against these children, teens with powers beyond the greatest wizards who he fully believed could destroy everything he knew without blinking.

Hazel dropped the illusion, cocking her head to the side as she studied Draco's reaction.

"I believe you," He said through a dry mouth, and he meant it.

~oOo~

Percy slashed at Ever, "Why!" he shouted over the sound of rushing water. Ever had dragged them through space and time to the base of some waterfall someplace, where she had proceeded to continue trying to kill both him and Reyna. Reyna had been left behind on their last jump, some random town in the middle of nowhere. Percy hoped it was at least some _modern_ little town in the middle of nowhere.

Ever had wings, big black angel wings like the flip side of Eros. They had just sort of solidified on her back when she launched herself at them. The time-traveling daughter of Kronos had wings. Why not.

"-I can't," Ever shouted back, a tear snaking down her cheek as she hacked at him with a pair of wicked looking twin swords.

"You can't what!" Percy shouted back, thoroughly confused.

Ever shook her head, "I can't hear-" the rest was lost in the roar of the falls. Percy jumped over the steep bank and into the water, figuring he could overpower her better in his own element. Ever followed, wings beating to keep her above the surface. Percy couldn't help thinking of that as unfair, in every way. She dove, her blades creating gashed in both his arms, which promptly closed.

As they fought Percy couldn't help noticing how she was moving, the way she only seemed to want to aim for non-fatal area's, like his arms or legs. She didn't want to kill him, and she looked like she might be crying, but Percy couldn't tell with the spray from the falls.

She dove and cut over the surface, her wing hitting Percy's shins and making him fall into the shallow water. She grabbed his arm and dragged him through space and time once again. They landed in a Walmart parking-lot and resumed their battle.

 _Isn't traveling around like that tiring?_ Percy asked himself as he dodged her blows, comparing her fighting to when she was on the battlefield against the monsters. When she fought with Percy she fought like a demon, faster than the eye could follow and deadlier than an angry Nico. But now her strokes were slower and less precise, as if she didn't want to hurt him.

The realization hit him like a brick to the chest. Of course he never really trusted her, but she didn't want him to. She had _begged_ him and his friends to kill her. She didn't want to fight them, she was being controlled somehow, maybe a careless oath on her part or leverage, either way she didn't want to win.

Percy dodged her next blow and looked her in the eyes, willing her to know that he understood. Relief flooded her eyes and she gave him and opening, making it look like a simple mistake, but Percy knew better. He took it, slamming the hilt of riptide into the base of her skull as hard as he could. She collapsed to the pavement, wings spread behind her in an almost angelic way. That is, if angels had short brown hair braided with charms and bullet casings and wore long black coats and fishnets.

Percy scooped her into his arms, finding her lighter than he thought she would be with those huge wings, and carried her to the alley between the stores. Just in case he hurried inside and bought himself some rope with some cash he found in his pocket, discovering that they were, in fact, in the U.S.A., and tied her up with it.

When Ever woke up she barely struggled, seeming to only try for whoever she seemed to think was watching. _Thank you,_ she mouthed as she wriggled in the ropes. Percy played along, winking at her with the eye that was to the back of the alley as he said, "Don't bother, they're tight," gods he was bad at this, where was Annabeth when you needed her?

Ever relaxed, keeping herself slightly tense for her possibly-imaginary viewers "What? Aren't you going to kill me?" She asked, the question was genuine.

"No," Percy responded, slightly confused, "I don't kill in cold blood,"

"It's not cold blood, I tried to kill you,"

"But you didn't,"

"Neither did any of the other monsters you fought,"

 _Does she really want me to kill her?_ Percy asked himself as he answered, "I don't know why though, and until I know why I need you alive," Ever visibly deflated, seriously how suicidal was she?

"Just kill me," She begged quietly, a tear splattering on her boot.

"No," Percy capped riptide and sat against the wall across from Ever, "I won't kill you," He traced his question in the dirt next to him, using his body to block the view of the words from outside the alley, _Why?_

She rolled her eyes behind her half-closed eyelids and said, "What do you want to do now?" she ignored his question. He brushed it out of the dirt so no one could see it later and covered the spot in random squiggles, a completely believable thing for an ADHD demigod to draw while sitting still.

"How about you tell me where, and when, we are," he said leaning forward slightly.

"Minnesota, the same day we left Hogwarts, just a few hours before, same with Reyna, she's not far from Camp Jupiter, just a few miles of country before she makes it to the city," her voice was quiet again, Percy found himself hating it when her voice was quiet.

"Why Minnesota?" He asked.

Her eyes met his, "You honestly think I have perfect control of my powers?" Percy thought about this, if she wanted to lose the battle she could have ended up in Camp Jupiter itself, where the Romans would easily overpower her and kill her, just like she wanted. Percy had begun thinking of Ever as a sort of goddess, too perfect to beat with her time travel and shadow travel and wicked sword skills, she was unbeatable. But Percy had found a crack in her pedestal, a flaw.

She couldn't control her powers like a goddess could. That was something, he didn't know how he would use this new information just yet, but he stored it away for later use. Ever glanced to her right, eyes flitting over the street for a fraction of a second before she sighed and shrugged off the ropes, which she had apparently untied while they spoke.

"I'm sorry Percy, I can only resist direct orders for so long, that's why I needed you to kill me, _need_ you to kill me," She got on her knees, "Do it, if I receive another order to kill you I won't- I won't be able to hold back like this time," She bowed her head, prepared.

Percy helped her to her feet, "Who would be the one to give you that order?" She opened her mouth as if he wanted to respond but her throat couldn't create the words. She groaned in frustration and dropped to the ground, grabbing a discarded receipt off the ground and taking riptide from Percy's hand, putting it in pen mode.

 _Black=White_

 _Day=_

She scribbled, showing it to Percy, eyes willing him to understand. Unfortunately, he did. Night. Nix. He nodded and he flipped the paper, scribbling on the back,

 _Where=who_

Percy paled. Where had he met Nix? He preferred not to think about that place, he revisited it enough when he slept. He shook his head, eye automatically flitting downwards.

Ever nodded solemnly. The pit was controlling her. The pit could make the most dangerous girl in the world do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Percy was suddenly feeling pretty hopeless.

"How does he give you orders, and how does he watch you carry them out?" Percy asked.

"I took an oath to protect someone, if he says anything from anywhere I hear him, I can't explain it but I just _know_ what he wants me to do, and I can't resist. As for monitoring, my brother, Damien, has this invisibility cloak, same one Harry has-had- I don't know, too many timelines. He got it from some shady dealer a couple hundred years from now," Percy nodded, though the time travel thing was still boggling his mind.

Ever suddenly stiffened, "Order," Was all she said before shimmering away to who-knows-when. Percy put riptide's cap back on and ripped up the receipt, tossing it into a trash can outside the store and walking off in search of a way home.

 **HEY! I know this update took forever but I started a new project at school on top of my other project, which happens to be a novel (I finish the first draft by the end of the month!YAY!) and I haven't had time to work on this, it was a stressful x-mas break and new years on top of that as well so writing was difficult. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I wanted to make it longer but I figured I kept y'all waiting long enough. More about Nico in the next chapter.**

 **I also have a request. I need reviews, I swear it's for school. I need y'all to tell me what you think I'm doing wrong, what you think I'm doing right, what you think is going to happen (so I can tell if I'm being too predictable) and so on. Another thing I need to know is whether the characters become occ, and when. Let me know in the reviews on a scale of 1-10, 1 being perfect and 10 being way off, which characters become occ and when that happens, I'd like to go back and fix it if I can.**

 **Anyway, I hope y'all had a good year so far and that it gets better as it goes on. Also, I would like to hear what you think the seemingly random objects braided into Ever's hair are, and why she put them there. I can assure you, they aren't random, and they are important. Please review! I need to get better and the only way to do that is to know what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right, otherwise I might change what I'm ooing right and keep what I'm doing wrong.  
**

PLEASE REVIEW!


	17. Chapter 17

Nico stumbled out of the shadow. His father had summoned him just as he was leaving the infirmary, freaking out the wizards and frustrating Will.

"Where did you go?!" Will demanded and Nico crossed his arms.

"My father wants me to complete a mission for him, I'm not allowed to share details just yet,"

Will could see the pain and resentment in his boyfriend's eyes, he knew it wasn't just any task. But he also knew that pushing him would only make him close up more, so he nodded, "Alright, you can share with me when you complete it then," He tried, and failed, to hide the hurt in his voice. Nico's face softened slightly but he just nodded stiffly and set off down the hall, presumably to complete his new 'task'.

Will sighed and watched him leave, wishing he could read minds. He turned and went the other way, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut. He tried to ignore what the feeling whispered in his ears, _Nico needs you and you just walk away,_ it said, _you claim to care about him but you don't even know what his father asked him to do,_ he shook his head, trying to clear away the little voice, _if you really cared you would make him tell you,_ he pushed the voice away and it went silent.

Will found himself in the infirmary and decided to help out. He was no wizard, but he knew medicine as well as any son of Apollo, so he could set bones and could tell when a spell wouldn't help, just based on his gut instinct.

He went over to one of the beds were a dark-haired boy lay with a broken arm and a cut on his side. Will set the arm easily, comforting the boy as he did before moving onto the cut. It was deep, but it didn't look like it hit anything vital.

He smelt smoke and glanced around to see where it came from, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until he looked at the boy's wound. It was smoking and sizzling, the same way Will had seen so many times before, but never this bad. It must have been the boy's lack of godly blood, but the imperial gold that must have cut him was burning away at him faster than it did on any demigod.

Will panicked, he had never treated this kind of wound without being able to use nectar or ambrosia before, and he wasn't sure if he could. He pushed the panic aside and thought logically, his hands practically moving on their own as they gave the boy pain medication and began to remove the splintered bits of gold in his flesh.

As he worked he shouted for medics, asking only for those who worked in the infirmary at camp and making the wizards leave. The only witches he let stay were a pair of witches from camp, daughters of Hecate who had gotten their Hogwarts letter and apparently kept Chiron updated on the events at the school, but had left to fight in the wars.

He stood, with tweezers in hand, removing splinters of gold from the wound with two daughters of Hecate, a son of Demeter, and three children of Apollo, all working as fast as they could to save the boy's life.

The son of Demeter worked frantically on a potion with help from one of the Hecate girls while the rest helped him with the surgery in one way or another. The other Hecate girl whispered incantations to keep the boy unconscious while the Apollo campers helped him with the actual bloody part.

Soon the potion was finished and the gold was gone and the Demeter boy brought it over, instructing them to pour it slowly over the wound, let it sit on the open wound for exactly twenty seconds, then stitch it closed as fast as possible. After that, they were to pour a small amount onto the stitches and inject the rest into his bloodstream to purge it of any remaining toxin.

They finished with the boy just as the last sliver of sunlight vanished over the horizon. Will, exhausted and relieved, finished putting on the last of his bandages and left. He muttered groggily down the halls, barely managing to dodge the outstretched limbs of sleeping demigods as he went. He made it to an empty classroom and found an unoccupied bed in the center of it. He vaguely remembered he was on the seventh floor, and that that was where the room of requirement was before he fell onto the bed and fell asleep.

Of course, with sleep came nightmares. Nico stood in an alley on a misty street and Will got the feeling he was watching these events live. A cloaked figure walked past on the street, taking no notice of the boy in the alley. Nico followed the figure at a distance, watching as he turned and went into a tavern. Nico followed a minute later, drawing no attention as he took a seat in the back.

The figure sat at the bar and ordered a drink, finally pulling down his hood to reveal a mop of dark hair. Will saw Nico catch his breath, then his face became stony, impossible to read. Will tried not to think about how Nico was acting as he watched to figure order a drink and just sit there for a long while, muttering under his breath every once in a while the few people who were there slowly cleared out.

Soon it was just the mystery man, Nico, and a lone stranger at the back of the tavern. The stranger got up and walked up to the bar, where he sat next to the mystery man and ordered a drink of his own. And they started to talk in hushed voices. Will strained his ears to hear and managed to catch the conversation.

The mystery man leaned forward on his elbows, taking a sip of his drink before speaking up, "I hoped I'd find you here Jonny," He said, not even glancing at the stranger, Jonny.

Johny took a sip of his drink and turned to face the mystery man, "I heard you died,"

"I did, as it turns out, the afterlife as shotty security," Jonny laughed, apparently taking it as a joke, until they saw the look on the mystery man's face and stopped.

"Wait, you were actually bested by a kid?"

The mystery man's posture stiffened, " _Potter_ had unforeseen advantages," The mystery man's tone made it abundantly clear that the matter was closed, "I need your help now-"

"And why would I help you? Look at you! Deaged to your teenage years and weaker than ever. You couldn't defeat the Potter boy when you were almost immortal, why would you be able to now?"

The mystery man-boy growled, "You're mistaken Jonny, I'm not weak, I'm stronger. I'm a teenager, yes, but I have all the memories of a wizard twice my physical age, and Dumbledore is dead. Potter feels safe, he thinks I'm dead. That means I can face him as a peer, I could get into Hogwarts as a student and befriend him, then kill him," The mystery man, Voldemort Will had guessed by now, turned to Jonny giving Will a clear look at his handsome profile and making Nico catch his breath again, "And you'll help me, you'll get me into the school, I can do the rest,"

Jonny smirked, "You'll need a fake name, and to change your appearance. Potter has seen your younger look in a memory, apparently, his old headmaster let him see you in a pensive,"

Voldemort cursed, "I can't use polyjuice because then 'i'd have to kidnap a muggle, which would be to much work and require too many resources. I could use transfiguration?"

Jonny nodded, "Just change a few things, maybe your eyes and nose, just enough to make you look like a different person, you can resemble yourself, but you have to be undeniably a different person,"

Voldemort nodded, "As for a name…" He thought about it for a moment, then his eyes flashed with a mix of different emotions, "Nico, I could be Nico," the real Nico choked silently and covered his mouth as Will did the same, wondering how in Hades the so-called dark lord knew his boyfriend.

Jonny shook his head, "No, you need something more common, like Mike or Alex or something,"

Voldemort thought about it, "I like Alex,"

"Good, you're Alex Smith, I'll get you into Hogwarts by the end of the week," Voldemort nodded and turned around in his chair and Will thought for a split second that he would see Nico, but the son of Hades was already gone.

The dream faded away and Will woke up in the room of requirement. He got up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, worry taking its place. Why was Nico spying on Voldemort? Was this the mission from his father? And how did he know the 'dark lord'? He pushed his worries aside and headed for breakfast, resolving to let Nico reveal the answers when he was ready.

Will found said the son of Hades outside, where a gigantic breakfast was set out on the warship.

"Hey," He greeted, grabbing a plate and willing it to fill with enough food for the two of them. Nico looked terrible, his hair was a mess and his t-shirt was wrinkled and on top of it all his eyes were bloodshot and sunken, as if he had spent the night tossing and turning rather than sleeping.

"Hey Solace," Nico said, scowling at, well, everything. Will suddenly felt guilty for not finding a place in the hall to sleep, where Nico could find him, instead of the room of requirement.

"You need to eat," Will said putting a piece of toast on a napkin and putting it on the rail. Nico scowled deeper but he ate the toast with just a little grumbling.

Will's smile wavered, "I-I had a dream last night," Nico stiffened slightly, then saw the look on Wills' face.

He broke, putting down his food he said, "Come with me," And led Will into the castle. They went up flights of stairs and through twisting hallways until they made it to the astronomy tower.

"What did you dream about?" Nico asked, but Will knew that he knew.

"I saw you, in a tavern, stalking Voldemort," the unspoken question hung in the air.

Nico sighed and rested his arms on the windowsill, "My mission from my father," he began, "it was to kill Voldemort, or Tom Riddle. Apparently, he escaped the underworld and came back here to kill Harry, it's my job to kill him first," He tried to hide the pain in his eyes, but Will saw it.

"My plan," he continued, "was to kill him in the tavern, but there was the bartender and that other wizard as witnesses, and I couldn't deal with the mortal police, even if I did manage to kill off the other wizard," he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, "I guess I could kill him once he gets to the school, but there are...complications...with that plan," Will wanted to ask how Nico knew Voldemort, but he knew how Nico was. If he asked now it would only make him close up more, especially when he was vulnerable like this. Will and Nico's relationship was more complicated than the other couple's, they hadn't gone through some huge tragedy together like most of the others. In fact, when Will first met Nico, the ghost king had let a teenage boy kill himself. And that wasn't exactly the best way to start a relationship.

Will shoved his thoughts aside, forgetting everything he knew about Nico, and asked, "How do you know Tom Riddle?"

Nico tensed, a series of emotions flying over his face, anger, fear, regret, guilt, then it hardened into a guarded expression, "I...We went to the same orphanage as kids, he was the only one who befriended me, who treated me like a person. Even with me being more...open...at the time, no one wanted to hang out with the little geek kid who attracted the shadows,"

Will suddenly felt a pang of guilt for forcing Nico into this, then he told himself that it had to be done. If Nico kept bundling all his problems inside he would destroy himself. Will was there to help him, he was there to confide in and help him solve his problems. Will was Nico's doctor, and he would make sure Nico got out of this alive.

"Nico," Will said, putting a hand on his shoulder, feeling him flinch at the unfamiliar gesture, "I _love_ you, I'm here for you. You can't keep these things to yourself because Nico," He gently lifted the boys chin and met his eyes, "if you do," Nico tried to look away but Will forced him to look him in the eye, "Nico, if you do, you'll destroy yourself, and if that happens it'll destroy me, and Hazel, and Annabeth, and Percy, and all the countless others who care about you," a tear slid down Nico's cheek and splattered to the stone floor.

There was a short pause, then Nico threw his arms around Will and cried, he cried until his eyes couldn't produce one more tear, until his chest couldn't produce one more sob, until he had broken down completely. Because sometimes, breaking down is the only way to become stronger.

~oOo~

Not far away a certain dark lord was sitting on a bed in a cheap motel with thoughts swirling through his head. Dieing hadn't been what he'd expected. He'd expected...well he wasn't sure what he'd expected, but it wasn't the detached emptiness he'd felt on the way to the underworld. It wasn't the crippling fear as he stood before the judges of the dead. And it most certainly wasn't the rush of memories that hit him like a brick to the chest when the judges had been deciding on his punishment.

He'd felt violated at the time, like they were taking something from him that he didn't want to give, like they were taking a part of him. But he later found himself reflecting on what he'd seen, particularly the idea he'd had as a child, silly at the time, impossible with the times. But now things were different, and just maybe….No. if the boy from the orphanage was still alive he was well into his nineties at least, and Vold-Tom-Alex-whatever his name was, was a teenager, physically anyway. His childhood fantasy was still impossible, and he was still a freak.

But there were things he didn't know, and he knew that. He knew that there were things in that cute little boy's past, in his mind, that he didn't know. And because of that, he had hope, if, by some miracle, he was a wizard, maybe he had found a chance at immortality like Tom had, one that didn't involve the splitting of his soul, and that ensured physical youth. _And didn't damage his appearance,_ the thought jumped into his head before he could stop it, and it made him smile. He didn't push it away like he should have, instead, he kept it, a little reminder that the old Tom Marvolo Riddle was still in him.

But little Tommy should have buried that thought. With youth comes recklessness as they say, and Tom was no exception. His de-aging had brought him into his old mental state, reckless and murderous, so he forgot things. Like the fact that his associate, Jonny, could read minds. And that he hadn't actually left the motel. Instead, the legilimens sat at a table in the dining hall just a few doors down in the single floored establishment, listening to every thought in Tom Marvolo Riddle's head.

 **Hey Y'all! Sorry about the long wait for the short chapter, I just picked up another project to get the credits I need to graduate my grade, so I've been swamped. (the project, for those who are interested, is a graphic novel about Norse mythology and it's going to be AWESOME).**

 **So, I have a challenge for you people, the first person to accurately guess what the purpose of Ever's braids are will get to pick between one of these things, 1) I post a chapter entirely from Tom's POV, or 2)I post a 5,000+ word chapter**

 **You have to post your choice with your guess to avoid spoilers, so you won't know who guessed correctly until it's revealed to everyone. Also, neither of those things will happen until someone guesses correctly, so get to guessing if you want them to happen. (Also, I'm hoping to get this chapter to twenty reviews, and if we reach that I'll post a 4,000+ word chapter)**

 **Peace y'all! TheGhostQueen, signing off! ;)**


	18. Chapter 18

Percy walked into the gas station, having been walking around in the chilly air for hours and not finding anything helpful, like maybe a 'Straight to Camp Half-Blood transport system' but there was no such place. A bell rang as he opened the door and the guy at the counter looked up at him. The counter guy gave him a friendly smile and waved, then got back to whatever it was he had been doing behind the counter. Percy suspected he was playing a game on his phone but he didn't say anything.

The gas station was empty except from counter guy and Percy, which made since, they were in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Percy had found this place after heading in a south-east-dish direction for a few miles and having several cars stop to ask if he needed help, which was pretty surprising to Percy because he was used to new yorkers, who had a tendency to mind their own business. Not that there was any problem with that. Heck, _Percy_ could be like that.

He wandered the isles for a while, trying to find something he could buy, but he figured he'd need his money later. So he resisted the urge to spend every last penny on sweets and paroched counter guy, the nametag on his uniform read 'Dave'.

"Hey," Percy greeted.

"Hey," The guy said, putting down his phone, which Percy glimpsed under the counter, "What can I do for you?"

Percy rubbed his neck, suddenly embarrassed, "Umm, er, I need to get to Manhattan, I sort of ended up here by mistake and I need to get back before my girlfriend skins me alive,"

Dave chuckled, "How do you end up hundreds of miles away from home on accident?"

Percy turned a little pink, "Um I…"

Dave put his hands up, "Hey, if you don't want to explain you don't have to, it's your business. I figure you could catch a plane in the cities a little way north of here, or you could hitchhike, other than that I can't help you, sorry,"

Percy shook his head, "No, thanks, I guess I should get going now," He waved goodbye awkwardly and left the store. He walked along the road, trying to wave down a car until one finally stopped and offered to give him a ride in the direction of new york. Percy gratefully accepted, a little wary of the stranger, a tidy looking man in a black business suit.

After a few minutes of awkward silence the man tried to strike up a conversation.

"Um, so, why are you headed to Manhattan?" He asked to break the silence.

"Um...Well, I live there, I'm only here by mistake," Percy was wary of giving to much away, he wasn't worried about the man believing him, but rather, him thinking that he was crazy and making him get out of the car or taking him to the police or something.

"How do you end up this far away from you home by accident?" The man asked, amused.

"It's a long story…" Percy was desperately searching his mind for a change of subject, but none occurred to him.

"Well, we'll be in this car for a few hours, we got time," Percy watched the landscape breeze by outside and was reminded of his days on the Argo 2, he only wished he could talk to this man about that instead of this.

"Well, it started with this party," He improvised, "some of my friends got drunk, all of them of age," he added, seeing the look on the man's face, "and I, and all the other underage kids were the designated drivers," He took a deep breath and pretended to clear his throat as he grappled for a way to continue.

Out of time, he improvised, just like old times, "Well, the drunk friends decided to plan a roadtrip, they called parents and hotels and everything," He glanced at the man, trying to gauge if he bought it. The man's face was unreadable so Percy continued, "The next day we ended up going through with it since all the preparations were made," Percy readied himself to delivered his B.S. conclusion, "we got all the way here and stayed in a hotel for the night, then everyone left and I got left behind,"

Percy decided to add in a bit of truth, "We were all at this winter camp thing, sorta like a boot camp where you learn combat and stuff, but _way_ more fun," The man nodded, but his eyebrows were scrunched together in confusion, as if he had found something that didn't make sense.

"Wait, so they just...left without you? And they didn't come back to get you?"

Percy silently cursed himself but smiled, "Oh, yeah, they did. You see, at this camp we all go to sometimes capers go on little 'quests', usually things like go on errands for the people who run the camp, or for your friends at the camp, so everyone would just think another one of them gave me a quest and that they arranged for me to get home. It happens all the time,"

"Are you sure this camp is legal?" The man sounded genuinely concerned.

"Sure it is, it's not like anyone's ever in danger, and the kids giving other kids quests thing is technically not allowed, and we usually have to do quests in groups of three or more, I recently did one in a group of seven. And we never do anything dangerous, this last one was pretty much a camp funded vacation, and they always ask for parents permission," Percy was laughing his head off in his head, just the idea of describing Camp Half-Blood as 'safe' was hysterical, just the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

The man nodded, "I'm Pete by the way," He said, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Percy," Percy said and stared out the window. They didn't talk for the next five hours.

Eventually the man started up small talk, him doing most of the talking about his wife and kids and job as a lawyer, and how a particularly nasty case had him driving up to Washington D.C., basically the life of a mortal.

Percy nodded along, finding himself wishing for that kind of life. He wished for a simple life, maybe not perfect, but simple. He wanted to go to work and help people, the go home and find a loving household waiting for him. He wanted to have kids jump up and hug him and for his wife to come home an hour later to the dinner he cooked for her. He wanted the life of a mortal, a life where he got a chance to live past thirty and grow old with the love of his life. But he was born to son of a god, and as such he had to kill the monsters, or they would kill him.

The man had stopped talking and seemed to be waiting for Percy to say something, "Im, sorry, what did you say?" He asked, embarrassed.

"I asked if you had a girlfriend, back home," He said, taking a left turn at a stoplight.

"Oh, yeah, her name's Annabeth, she the smartest person I know," He sighed, "She's got this blond hair that curls around her face and is so cute when it's messy, and these gray eyes that seem to know everything. I swear that girl can talk her way out of any situation," He glanced at the man who had a humored smile on his face, "I sound like some kind of cheesy romantic don't I," He said.

The man laughed, "Yeah, you kinda do kid. But you're young, who knows, maybe she's 'the one'," Percy could tell he meant it as a joke, but Percy knew she was. There was no one else he would ever want to spend his life with. _Whoa, where'd that thought come from,_ he chastised himself, this was no time to go swooning over his girlfriend. He had a mission, he had to follow it. _Too much time with the Romans Percy,_ he chuckled to himself, then remembered the man and said, "Yeah, I think she is,"

"Wait and see kid, most guys think that about their girlfriends around your age, those things never last," Percy could tell he was trying to give him advice, but Pete just didn't know what it was like to go through as much as he did with someone he loved. Pete didn't understand how strong a relationship grew when they saw you at your strongest, at your weakest, and at your most terrifying. Annabeth had seen him when he had choked the goddess of misery in her own poison, she had seen him when he dropped his sword in the face of the pit, she had seen him in the battle of Manhattan when he had the curse of Achilles and could cut down hundreds of monsters without breaking a sweat. Theirs wasn't just a regular teenage romance. They were meant to last.

"Not me, not Annabeth," Percy said, staring out the window, imagining her face.

Pete just said, "Whatever you say kid, you'll see," they were silent for a few more hours, Pete occasionally making a comment on something that came on the radio or the town they drove into, but other than that Percy said nothing.

It was a few hours later when Pete pulled over next to a hotel in a small town in some state between Minnesota and New york, Percy had stopped paying attention a while ago.

Pete handed him a wad of cash, just some tens and twenties, and told him to rent a room for the night and phone someone to pick him up, then he was gone, leaving Percy at the motel. Percy walked inside, trying to limit his breathing at the smell of cigarette smoke and mold. He made his way to the front desk were a woman with tattoos covering her exposed arms and neck and wearing a tight black T-shirt and a black leather vest was playing games on her phone.

Percy smiled as he walked up, trying not to wrinkle his nose at the smell, "Hey," he said, "Um, could I rent a room?" The woman looked up at him like he was an annoying child she wanted to get rid of and typed something into her computer.

"Just one night?" She asked, glancing at him. He nodded and she gave him a plastic card, his room key, in exchange for some of the cash, "Number six, on your right," She said and went back to her game. Percy nodded again and made his way to his room.

He had to try the card a few times before the door opened to reveal a drab room with peeling wallpaper, yellowing carpet, and a tiny attached bathroom, in which everything seemed to be yellow. Percy hoped that the yellowish tint to everything was a trick of the light and went to work, using the shower and a desk lamp to make a rainbow.

He muttered a prayer to Iris and asked for his mom first, then flipped his coin into the mist. It rainbow shimmered and his moms face appeared. She was at home with Paul, both of them eating dinner.

"Um, hi mom," Percy said.

Sally jumped and her head snapped to him, "PERCY!" She exclaimed, turning in her seat to face him, "Annabeth said you and Reyna disappeared, where are you? Is Reyna there? Are you okay?"

Percy put up his hands in surrender, "Whoa whoa, mom, slow down. I'm in some motel somewhere, no Reyna is not with me, apparently she's somewhere near Camp Jupiter, so someone should hear from her soon, and I'm fine, just a few scratches,"

Sally looked puzzled, "But how…"

Percy shrugged, "A time traveling daughter of Kronos apparently, she intentionally dropped us in the correct time period, but she's under the control of...the pit...she has no choice but to comply, which made her extremely suicidal, like, she begged us to kill her,"

Sally wiped her mouth with a napkin and said, "Where is she now, what's her name?"

"Her name is Ever, and I'm not sure where...when, she is, but she's sure to turn up sometime,"

"Okay, where are you, I'm sure I can get someone to pick you up,"

"I told you, I don't know, I could ask, here, I'll call you on your phone and give you the address, then you contact camp and ask them to send someone, are the Stolls back yet? If they are, send them," He didn't wait for and answer and cut through the mist, then went downstairs and got the address from the woman and was directed to a landline for him to use. He called up his mom and told her where he was.

He was about to go back to his room when he heard a rumbling voice behind him, "PERSEUS JACKSON!" the voice bellowed, "PREPARE TO DIE!" Percy uncapped riptide and whipped around to face the cyclops. He lunged but the cyclops perrie his blow with his club, then gave a strike of his own. Percy ducked and rolled into the narrow hall, the club missing him by a hair's breadth.

The cyclops lumbered after him, bellowing taunts as he swung his club at Percy. The demigod found and opening and took it, plunging his blade into the cyclops' gut and sinking it to the hilt at an upward angle, hoping to hit something vital. The monster crumpled to yellow dust, leaving only his club behind. Percy ignored to twisted stump and capped his sword. He turned to the woman, who was peeking sitting nonchalauntly as ever at her desk. Pery rolled his eyes and went to his room, collapsing onto the bed and slipping into the realm of Morpheus.

Percy was in a room full of monsters, all looking up to a figure standing on a stage at the front cover head to toe in fabric. The monsters shifted restlessly as they waited for their leader to speak, muttering in hushed tones until the figure raised their hands for silence.

"I realize," the silky voice said from beneath the veil, "that you are growing restless," the monsters muttered their agreement, "I realize," The figured put their hands down, "that the loss of our prisoner is something you would call a 'bad omen' or a sign I shouldn't be leading you. You believe that a truly great leader should be able to keep a simple healer prisoner easily," more muttering, "But!" The figure continued, pacing the stage, "If I argue the same for you, an army of monsters would be able to fight off two demigods, winged or not," silence, "I know you want to attack now, but if we do that we _will_ lose. I have seen these demigods in action, even when they are divided they can wipe out entire armies. I will not loose the same way those before me did,"

The figure placed a hand on the blood stained pillar in the center on the stage, "I will not underestimate the demigods. One of them alone could kill me, and I know that, so I will make sure they don't try,"

The dream faded and Percy woke to the familiar hymn of the engines on a flying warship. He looked out his window to see the 'Death of an auger' descending into the empty land next to the motel. Percy rubbed his bleary eyes and noted the time on the clock next to the bed, 6:32. He groaned and left his room, leaving through the empty lobby and bordering the waiting ship.

The Stolls waited for him on deck, along with a bunch of other campers, all of whom looked to be wide awake. Percy waved away their questions and went below deck, where there were rows of physics- defying rooms with two dozen doorways all side by side leading into rooms logically to big for the ship, a feat accomplished by the combined efforts of Leo, Annabeth, and Harley, (Harley wanted to add fire- throwing robots but Annabeth said no).

Percy flopped into the soft bed and went into a doze, not daring to fall back into his dreams.

~oOo~

Ever landed sometime in the mid 1600's. She wrapped her coat around her and tried to wipe away the blood splatter on her face and legs. She glanced out at the street from her place in the alley and rolled her eyes. Women are treated with such disrespect in this time. She kept her head down and joined the crowd, willing the mist to hide her from the notice of the people around her.

She speed-walked to a small stone building and turned inside. A bell rang to announce her entrance, but no one was there to hear it. The air inside was musty and dry, smelling of old things and dust. A thick coating of grey powder covered everything in the shop, which ranged from bookcases to candlesticks, all antique, even then.

Ever wasted no time, rushing to the back room and scouring the shelves until she found what she was looking for. A large, thick book lay behind an expensive looking china set on the back shelf. She carefully moved the china and removed the book, blowing off the layer of dust on the cover.

The title read 'Cures and Curses, by G.G.O.' she gingerly flipped through the delicate pages, skimming the words as she went. She read each heading on the pages, 'Basilisk venom', 'Dragon fire burns', 'liquid luck', 'Killing curse', 'Puppeting potions'- she stopped and read that last one again. Yes, she found it. She heard the bell ring at the front of the shop. She panicked. She marked her page with a ribbon she found tied around the neck of a bottle and tucked the book under her arm.

"Hello!" a male voice called from the from of the shop. She decided to mess with the times and came out with a smile, making sure the title of the book was hidden against her body.

"Why hello there," she greeted with a friendly smile, nothing sarcastic about it for once.

"Hello," said the man, maybe thirty of forty years old, "is your father here, I'm here for the china set, he said he had it in the back,"

She smiled and leaned her elbows on the counter, "Yes, the china is in the back, but no, my father isn't here," She made herself sound as sweet as possible, just a little girl in her father's shop.

"Actually," She continued as she went to fetch the china set, "I'm the one who handles most of the actual work around here, he does the cooking and cleaning an whatnot," The man looked stunned but she held her smile, trying not to show the triumphant gleam in her eye, "As a matter of fact," she said as she calculated the cost of the china in her head and asked him for the money, "I'm also the one to fight off the gangs that come here to take our money, awful people you know, my father couldn't possibly fight them all off at once, what with him being so delicate and all,"

Her polite smile had become a grin but the man got a severe look on his face, "In my house there are penalties when a woman lies," He said as she wrapped his china in cloth and handed the pieces to him.

"Oh, really now, that's nice, but you really should punish the men too, don't want their fragile egos to be hurt when you tell them that their lies are unimportant," Her grin was wide and triumphant as the man got red in the face.

"You _disrespectful little girl_!" He said through gritted teeth, he must have been easily agitated, or just particularly sexist, or both. He raised his hand to strike her but she grabbed it and twisted, slamming his body against the counter and shattering his china.

She leaned down and whispered with a smile, "I'm sorry, did you mean to imply that you thought _I_ was lying? Oh you poor, ignorant little thing," she twisted his arm harder, "I could gut you alive and feed you to the birds without breaking a sweat, understand?" Then she let him go and he stumbled out of the shop with a bag full of china shards and sever new bruises, several on his body and a few more on his ego.

Ever found a messenger bag in the shop and put the book inside it, practically skipping around the shop as she found ornate daggers and double swords, which she strapped to her back and belt. Ever loved doing that, damaging the ego's of the self-entitled. In her opinion, if you didn't earn your superiority through a fair competition, or with the odds stacked against you, it wasn't yours.

She found herself a nice hairpin and used it to pin back some of her braids, which were getting in her face. She fingered the engagement ring, a memory trying to surface in her mind but failing. She sighed, she guessed there were some things she would just never know.

She finished 'shopping' and traveled back to where she'd been ordered to go, her chipper mood gone. She looked up into the face of the pit and tried to imagine it was all a dream, a nightmare that would never end. Shackles bound her arms and legs before she could do anything.

"Ah, I see you picked up some light reading!" Tartarus bellowed. She winced under his voice, looking directly into his face as she discreetly pulled out to ribbon and tied it around her wrist with one hand.

"Show me," He demanded and she handed it over, her body acting before her mind could catch up. Tartarus paged through the book, apparently finding nothing dangerous, he handed it back to her, "Brushing up on that weak magic for your next mission, smart," He left without spending another second on her. She pulled the ribbon off her wrist and fiddled with it, making herself into a nothing, no threat to the pit where she sat, on top of a vein, in the heart of the pit, the heart of her master.

She opened the book and read from page one, reading the forgotten cures and vaccines for Basilisk venom and the unique treatments and uses for dragon fire. Soon she knew more than even the most expert of wizards. And she was bored. She would, every once in a while, flip back to the 'Puppeting potions' page and read a few words, but there were too many monster around to truly read it.

She danced her luck and cursed the pit to never be able to manifest in physical form again, then prayed to the fates her'd fight the curses and kill hers. She looked around at the familiar collection of prisoners, some of which hated her more than the pit. There was a group of demigods, whom she had been assigned to either kill their loved one by the pit or make them fall in love by Eros. Or sometimes both, like in one particular girls case.

Her name was Emma, daughter of Hermes, and Ever had been told to make her fall in love with some son of Dionysus. Ever didn't know the full details, but the two of them had a star-crossed romance, both of them already in bad relationships. Then they broke up with their date-mate's and got together and it was all sunsets and daydreams until Ever had been sent to kill the son of Dionysus. So...Ever didn't have her as a friend.

Ever wriggled in her chains, making some noise to alert the prisoners who actually liked her to her presence. She smiled at Bob the titan and Damasen the giant, prisoners of the pit.

 **Hey y'all! so I added a few clues to the purpose of the braids, just helping y'all out a bit. I've already started the next chapter, in which I'm planning on showing y'all a bit more of Tom/Voldemort/Alex. I've got a question for y'all as well, how many fandoms do you think I'm a part of? Answer in the reviews.**

 **The challenge from the last chapter still stands to tell me your guesses and I'll deliver whichever you tell me you want.**

 **Bye y'all! Hope you have a good rest of the year!**


	19. Chapter 19

Tom Marvolo Riddle was no more. Now there was only Alex Smith, muggle-born wizard and transfer student from Australia. He had wrinkled his nose at the thought of being called a muggle-born, but Jonny had insisted it was necessary to keep his cover, a pureblood wizard would definitely be in some historical records of some sort, while a muggle-born would raise less suspicion.

His story was his parents had tried to get him to suppress his magic, but a wizard had found him and told his parents what that could do to him. The wizard had taught him all the magic he should have known by that time in his life and gotten him his first wand. He had just finished his studies and was enrolling in Hogwarts late because of his catch up work. He was going to be joining the seventh years a year late because of that.

Of course, the story would prove to be ridiculous once the teachers saw his skill with his wand, so he was supposed to downplay that little aspect, pretend to mess up a few spells, get a few questions wrong on tests, that sort of thing. He hated the idea, but it had to be done to keep his cover in place, at least until he killed Harry. An idea hit him as he stared at his reflection in the hotel room mirror. What if he made Harry's death look like an accident, maybe blame it on a beast or something, that way he could stay at Hogwarts, pretend to mourn the loss of his fellow student, and continue to sabotage what he could, kill off powerful wizards, recruit new young death-eaters, the like.

He smiled, in retrospect, his previous plans had been dumb and ill thought out, but this time he would learn. Perhaps the year of the Tri-wizard tournament he could have made a random book into a portkey had his mole make sure Harry picked it up and ta-da! Harry was his. Maybe he could have thought through some of his other plans better as well, but this time would be different. This time he would think everything through and get what he wanted.

His thoughts drifted again, going to the thing he really wanted. The thing that was long gone, his chance gone long ago. T-Alex tried to clear those thoughts from his head but they came back, gripping his mind too strong for him to resist. And ache filled his chest as he thought about the things he'd lost, the things that had driven him to seek immortality in the first place.

Angel, his thoughts screamed, my little black Angel. He pushed the thoughts down again, trying to find a new topic to think about. But he found nothing, the only thing left to consume his thoughts was the loss of young love. He tried to convince himself that it was silly, he hadn't even known was love was at the time, heck, he probably still didn't. Well, that was a depressing thought. Was he really that repulsive? Was his obsessive pursuit of blood purity getting in the way of everything else? Like his happiness? Was he really so disgusting that no one could ever love him?

No. The monster he had been was. The man with a snake-like face and repulsive red eyes was a monster, unloveable, cold. This teenager, reborn and seeking vengeance, was a sociopath, but so were some of the students at Hogwarts. That he had forgotten his Angel, this him remembered clear as day. That he hadn't wanted what they could have had. This him wanted it more than his revenge.

Tom Marvelo Riddle smiled one last time at his teenage face and muttered a spell. His eyes changed color, his nose changed shape, his hair grew slightly longer and shaggier. He put down his wand and looked at himself, satisfied with his new face, he just had to keep up the spell and he would be fine. No one expected to see him there, and now he only possessed a passing resemblance to his old self anyway.

Hogwarts would never see him coming.

~oOo~

Nico sat alone atop a tree into forbidden forest. Much like the mast of the Agro 2, it was a place where no one would bother him, a place where he could think clearly. The dream he'd had that night showed him Tommy's new face. Unfortunately, it had given him an emotional stab in the heart as well. Just a little word, whispered by a mass murderer. But it had broken him. "Angel" Tommy had whispered just before he changed his face. He probably hadn't even realized he said it, but he had, and Nico had heard.

Nico clung to the trunk of the tree, debating letting himself fall to the ground far below. If he fell he wouldn't have to kill Tommy. If he fell he would be free of his task. But, if he fell, he would hurt Will. he would hurt Will worse than he'd ever hurt anyone before. Nico secured his grip and stared at the sky.

"Why," He whispered, not to the gods, but to anyone else, anyone who would listen to him. He looked at the hunter, the one who had died to rescue her lady Artemis, the one who had joined the stars because of an oath she had taken to protect her lady. She had died at the hand of the father. Nico wondered if he would as well.

Maybe Hades hadn't known exactly what he was asking Nico to do at first, but he had to know by now. He wondered why his father didn't just give someone else this quest. Why did he make his son do something so horrifyingly cruel?

Then it hit him. Pride. His father was worried about his pride. He probably hadn't realized what he was making Nico do when he gave him his quest, but he knew now, there was just no way he didn't. But he was worried what his immortal family would think about him being 'soft'. Nico was disgusted. In ancient Greece, it was a crime of the highest degree to murder one's own family. Nico didn't have many friends, let alone family, but Tommy had been part of that tiny circle, if a long time ago.

Nico wanted to consider Tommy his family, just like he did for any of his friends (though he would never tell them that). So his father was asking him to commit a crime that would be considered worthy of the worst punishments in the fields, just to protect his pride. Nico's hands balled into fists. He had never considered destroying an Olympian before. Now he wanted to tear his father to pieces.

He surveyed the surrounding forest, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, dark trees, the castle in the distance, the sounds of monsters in the air. He was used to it. He swung down from tree limb to tree limb until he reached the ground. He landed with a soft thud and began to make his way silently back to the school. There was a crack behind him. He froze, hand instantly on the hilt of his sword.

"I know you're there," He said, zeroing in on the source. He knew the sound was to loud to be a small animal, and there was only one snap, so one twig. Large animals didn't take care not to step on twigs. Human then, or centaur.

A figure emerged from behind a tree with their hands up, "Nico," Ever said quietly. She was older than he last saw her, maybe late teens/early twenties, "I need your help,"

"And why would I help you," Nico snarled, unsheathing his blade.

"Because," Ever said meeting his eyes, "I need you to kill me,"

~oOo~

The hunters left that night, along with most of the demigods. Hermione stood outside the hunters camp, watching in awe as they took it down, leaving no trace, in seconds. Thalia came out of the largest tent and collapsed it, one of the hunters collecting it and tucking it into her pocket.

Thalia came over to Hermione with a smile, those electric blue eyes pinning her with what she supposed was supposed to be a friendly look, but the intense blue of her eyes ruined it, making it scarier than anything else.

"Hey," Thalia said with a smile.

"Hey," Hermione responded, with a smile of her own, "Are you leaving already?"

"Yeah," Thalia answered, straightening her coat, "There's this...you know what, I can't, exactly, tell you, but it's important." Hermione scrunched up her eyebrows but didn't inquire anymore.

"So...I guess I'm out of time then," Hermione observed, feeling a bit awkward.

"Yeah," Thalia said, "I guess you are,"

Hermione rubbed the back of her neck, "So, I-" She looked around, noticing that several of the hunters around them had turned to watch, "I guess I have to choose now," Thalia noded, "Join you, become partially immortal and live out my days hunting with you lot, not ever having to worry about boys again," She looked behind her, at the school, "Or," She imagined her friends, Ron, Harry, all the Weaslys, "Or I can stay behind, grow old as a witch, maybe get a job or something," She shook her head, meeting the eyes of one of the hunters, Amber.

She looked back at Thalia, "One last question, can I visit them, you know, like days off, maybe see my friends on holidays and such?"

Thalia considered it for a moment then smiled at her, "I'd have to ask lady Artemis, but I think you could, I mean, we occasionally stop by camp to kick everyone's butts at capture the flag, so I don't see why you couldn't visit your friends on occasion,"

Hermione smiled, she had her answer, "Yes, I want to join,"

Amber ran up and hugged her, "Yay!" She yelled, rather childishly, "Of course you'll have to go with the lieutenant first, take the oath, then we'll be sisters," Amber smiled, looking much younger than she probably was.

Hermione went up to Thalia, who had a smug smirk on her face, "All right then, let's get you vowed in,"

~oOo~

Will was pacing the halls when the shadows thickened and Nico stumbled out, covered in blood and dirt and looking generally terrible.

"Nico!" Will exclaimed, lunging forward to catch him before he collapsed. Nico was mumbling something that Will couldn't make out and his whole body was shaking and convulsing uncontrollably. Will pulled a canteen of nectar out of his messenger bag, which he had started to carry around with him, and propped Nico up on his lap, tilting his head back and pouring a little of the drink into his quivering lips.

"E-Ever-" Nico stuttered, "she-she-I-she-I-I-" he doubled over, clutching his stomach, his body convulsing even worse. Will called for help and tried to listen to the babbling coming out of his boyfriend's mouth, but he couldn't make out any of it. Will managed to get Nico to swallow another sip of nectar, which seemed to calm the shaking a bit.

"Ever," Nico gasped, "I-" He stopped himself, burying his face in his hands, "Oh gods…" he whispered, "I'm a monster,"

Will put an arm around him, brow creased in worry and eyes wide in alarm, "No, Nico, you're not a monster, what did you do?" He asked, barely managing to hide the quiver in his voice, the doubt.

"I-I-" He tucked his face into his knees and sobbed, "You'll hate me," He said, almost to quiet for Will to hear, "You'll hate me, and you should, you should hate me with every fiber of your being,"

Will tightened his grip around Nico, "No," His tone was hard, "No, Nico, I could never hate you. You hear me? Never,"

Nico looked up at him, those shadowy pits filled with such self-loathing that Will almost couldn't look. Nico spoke in a soft, bitter tone, "She came to me, she asked me to kill her," He turned his eyes to the wall across from him, refusing to meet Will's gaze, "She had been given an order, apparently she can't directly disobey her orders unless she finds a way to remove whatever curse they have on her or if she finds a way to prevent herself from compleating her task with a force that should be out of her control,"

Nico took a deep breath, "She wanted me to kill her," He repeated, "She thought I was the only one who would understand, even a little, and who might just do as she asked," He looked Will dead in the eye, pinning him with a stare that sent shivers down his spine, not because it held fear of self-loathing, but because it was filled with a lust and pleasure that he had never seen before in the young Ghost King's eyes. And it scared him. It really, really, scared him.

"She wanted me to prevent her from doing as she was told?" Nico stopped shaking and moved his arms, showing Will that there wasn't a scratch on him. The blood wasn't his.

"I did."

 **Hey Y'all! I know this is a shorter chapter than usual, but both of my sisters are sick (though I think my lil sis is faking, because she is the fakest person alive) and I've had to try to avoid getting whatever landed my older sis in the hospital (No, I don't know what it is, sue me, and we share a room, and a closet for the time being so it's a little harder for me than everyone else) So yeah, that's how my life has been complicated more than usual. In other news, I got to do 'Feed my starving children' last Friday with the rest of my school, so that was fun (we packed enough food for 100+ kids to eat for the next year:))**

 **Anyway, I would appreciate it if you reviewed this chapter, I really need your feedback. Seriously, if I'm doing something wrong, whether it's a recurring grammatical error that you noticed or an aspect of the story that you don't like I need to know so I can avoid it in the future.**

 **Also, keep your guesses about Ever's braids coming, they will be a** ** _huge_** **plot point later and I like to hear what you think I have planned, it's interesting and gives me ideas, so if you have an idea that you want to see later in the story, just put it in the reviews, I guarantee I will see it and take it into consideration.**

 **(Also, if you remember from earlier I offered to show Percy's life at Goode, well, I could still do that, I actually know exactly how but I need to know soon if you want to see it because the way I want to integrate it depends on something happening now (I'm sure you can guess what that is) and If you don't tell me you want to see that I'll bypass the opportunity and might not be able to add it in smoothly)**

 **-To whoever suggested that Ever's braids (specifically her charms) are weapons- you're not wrong, but you're not entirely right either, what I mean is, there's more to it than that, but you're on the right track. (sorry I'm too lazy to go and look up your username (and my sis keeps telling me to turn my computer off so she can sleep (shut up Tori))**

 **Anywho, see y'all later, better get to sleep before my sis wrings my neck (not that she would do that, she literally wouldn't hurt a fly, and if she did, she would feel guilty about it for the next week) (I only wish I was exaggerating)**


	20. Chapter 20

Ever and Bob were moved closer together after new prisoners were brought in, more demigods who, thankfully, didn't know Ever. Ever leaned closer to Bob, "Bob!" He jumped slightly and leaned down closer to her level so he could hear her. She smiled at him, "Hey Bob, do you remember me?"

Bob's eyebrows drew together in confusion, "I do not remember little girl with wings,"

She winced, noticing for the first time that her wings were visible, "Sorry, I'll meet you in a few years I guess," She saw the confused look on his face and barreled on to avoid explaining, "I have a plan to get us out of here, you, me, and Damasen, maybe some of the demigods as well," He perked up and she could tell he was listening. She smiled to herself, "Now listen…" she told him the plan.

~oOo~

Former-Tom-Riddle walked into the great hall of Hogwarts, feeling like he had just won the Triwizard-tournament. He strolled up to the stool and sat down. He had cast some powerful spells on his memories to keep the sorting hat from recognizing him. The unfortunate result of this, however, as he now had two sets of memories in his head, one locked away and block from the hat, and the other entirely fake.

The hat was placed on his head and he heard its voice for the first time in years, _Ahhhh, a truly obvious choice, I'll put you in,_ "SLYTHERIN" Applause from the table in question as 'Alex' made his way over. He sat down near a group in the middle of the table, all of whom seemed to be really close friends, joking around and whispering into each other's ears.

Now-Alex slid into a seat next to a dark haired boy with a blond girl sitting beside him trying to get him to stop shoveling food into his mouth.

"Hi, I'm Alex," He introduced himself, forcing his face into a friendly smile.

"I'm Percy," Percy said after swallowing an ungodly amount of food, "nice to meet you,"

The girl next to him elbowed him in the ribs for the edge of sarcasm in his voice and gave Alex a friendly smile of her own "I'm Annabeth Chase, This is Percy Jackson," She said gesturing to the boy who had just shoved even more food into his mouth, "And that's Hazel," She said, gesturing to the girl in question. And so on, she introduced the rest of her friends at the Slytherin table, "The rest are in the other houses, and two of them are being sorted privately right now because of…" She glanced at Percy, "...some...unpleasant memories," Alex nodded, his brow furrowed in confusion, _what memories could possibly be bad enough to warrant a private sorting?_

He didn't have much time to dwell on it however because the headmaster stepped to the front and raised her arms for silence, "Thank you," She said once the chatter had died down, "Now, I would like to introduce our new students…" a middle aged man in a wheelchair, whom Tom had never seen before, whispered something in her ear and she trailed off, "Um, one of the students seems to have had a negative reaction to the sorting, and won't be joining us tonight, you may see him later on in your classes,"

She cleared her throat, "But the other student is fine," She raised a hand to silence the voices that began to speak up around the room, "His name is William Solace and he was sorted, like most of the exchange students, into multiple houses. Out of Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin, he chose Slytherin," Tom's eyebrows drew together in confusion, _multiple houses?_ That was unheard of! And 'like the other exchange students'? Who were they?

"We're the exchange students," Percy said, apparently done with his food, "Most of us went through some pretty traumatic stuff during our last war," The haunted look in his and Annabeth's eyes got him feeling just a bit guilty, it was, after all, his fault that there _was_ a wizarding war in the past years. .

"Anyway, the hat didn't seem to like what it saw in our heads, so it sorted us into a bunch of houses and we got to choose. I gotta say, I don't really like this schools method of sorting,"

Tom raised an eyebrow, "And your school is better?"

"As a matter of fact, it does," Percy was cut off by a sharp jab to the ribs from his girlfriend.

"Sorry," Annabeth said, shooting Percy a sharp look, "Our school is super secretive, that's what makes it safe, you won't find any mention of it in any book here or anything like that. It's by invitation-only and usually takes students from a particular family or bloodline, because they are the most likely to already know about the school already," She gave him an apologetic smile.

"But, telling me how you sort students shouldn't jeopardize the safety of your school?"

Annabeth tilted her head to the side, "Hm, yeah, I guess you're right-" She was cut off by a piercing whistle from one of the side doors, in which stood the source, a tan blond guy wearing muggle clothes.

"Exchange students!" He yelled, "It's Nico, he needs us, _NOW_!" The reaction was immediate. About two dozen kids immediately stood up and rushed out the door while the headmaster was stopped from stopping them by the wheelchair guy. _Nico._ The name was like a knife in his chest. He knew it was different Nico, his angle couldn't possibly be a student here, it'd be too big a coincidence, too lucky, or unlucky depending on what Nico thought of him now.

Tom found himself standing with the group and was about to get off the bench when Percy put up a hand to stop him, "No," Percy said, "Anyone but us could make it worse," Tom sat back down, not even sure what came over him. He dismissed any further thoughts of his childhood from his mind. He was here to kill Potter, nothing more. There may not be a prophecy this time, but revenge, as they say, is a sweet thing.

His thought were interrupted by the castle trembling.

~oOo~

Will led the demigods down the hall to the hospital wing, where Nicolay filling on one of the beds. Will had cleared all of the nurses relatively easily, leaving only him and the demigods with the unconscious Nico.

"Percy, Annabeth, I need you ready to help me wake him up, you have more experience with these nightmares than the rest of us, Leo, try to keep the castle from collapsing," Leo nodded and took off down the halls just as another tremor hit the castle.

Will turned to the rest of the demigods, "I need the rest of you to try to keep him as still as possible, he could hurt himself and sometimes just stopping the flailing can wake him up," Everyone rushed to their designated task, working as fast as possible.

Will made his way to Nico's side and ran his hand over his hair, "Shhhh," He said quietly, "shhh, Nico, it's okay, you're okay, please wake up," Nico calmed down slightly at the sound of his voice he was still tossing and turning in his sleep, muttering incoherently.

"Nico," Will said, a little louder as the demigods who had been holding him still backed away, "Nico, wake up," Nico's eyes flew open and he bolted upright, eyes wild and breath short.

"Nico, Nico," Will said, getting his attention, "You're safe, it was just a memory," Nico was shaking, trying to hide it, but shaking. Will put his arms around him and dismissed the others with his eyes. They left silently and Nico gave no hint that he knew they were there.

~oOo~

Back in the great hall, the demigods took their seats, whispering amongst themselves in dead languages and ignoring the questioning looks from the wizards. Tom tried to get Percy's attention, "Hey Percy, what happened, who's Nico?"

Percy turned to him, "Nico's a friend of ours, during the sorting the hat goes through your memories, well, his aren't good," Tom nodded, the guilt like a knife in his stomach. The boy may not be _his_ Nico, but his emotions reacted as if he was, a part of his mind insisting that he had hurt his black angel, that he had caused him enough pain to warrant all of the exchange students help to get him out of his own head.

Alex schooled his features into a look of just mild concern while his pulse beat against his chest, something inside him screaming that he had hurt Nico Di Angelo. But he hadn't. He knew that, if Nico was even alive, he would have to be really old, too old to be an exchange student at any rate.

The students were dismissed to their respective dorms and Alex followed the tide to the dungeons, pretending it was his first time in the castle. When they got to the secret entrance the girl next to him said that password and they went in. He put on a false awed expression as he took in the familiar Slytherin common room and made his way to the boys room, finding one of the three empty beds and sitting down, seeing his luggage under the bed, he pulled it out and rummaged through it as if looking for something while he listened to the conversations around him.

The exchange students spoke an odd mix of ancient Greek and latin, something he would have to look into later, and the general gossip of the students proved useless. All they seemed to talk about were the exchanges students, and the attack earlier that year, both things he had been filled in on by Jonny before he came to the school, but hearing about the exchange students from the other students perspective was interesting. He realized he had been rummaging around in his trunk for too long and pulled out a random textbook and flipped through it, pretending to study.

A little while later everyone was in bed. Alex waited a little longer, hoping to catch a glimpse of the 'Nico' kid before he went to sleep, but there was no sign of him or the blond guy. Alex gave up after a little while and went to sleep.

He woke up a few hours later to the sound of heavy breathing and muffled words. He turned toward the sound and saw Percy tossing and turning in his sleep, muttering incoherently. Alex watched, forgetting the proper reaction, which was to see if he was okay, and just watched, listening to the vague sayings and protests coming from the boy's mouth.

The boys' friends managed to get him to wake up after a while, sort of. When one of them, whose name Alex didn't bother to remember, tried to shake his shoulder Percy had snatched her up by the neck and had her pinned to the ground with the nearest weapon, a herbology textbook, poised above her head. Alex absently wondered how he had ended up with that reflex. The girl seemed entirely unconcerned at the notion of having her head bashed in, however, and just lay there and waited for him to realize who she was. Alex was too groggy to wonder how a girl had gotten in the boy's room.

"Oh, sorry Reyna, I'll just, um, go back to sleep now," And so he did, drawing the curtains shut around his bed and presumably attempting to go back to sleep. Alex followed suit, he wasn't here for the exchange students, he would only involve himself in their affairs if it was absolutely necessary in his quest for revenge. Distractions were completely out of the question.

Alex had a dreamless sleep, or, at least, he likes to pretend he did. In reality, his dreams had been filled with images of a little boy in black with a deck of collectors cards in hand and a devilish grin on his face as he laid down his best card, winning the game. In his dream they placed bets, as they had when they were kids, the difference was, when they were kids they beat candy or coins. In his dream, however, they bet their hearts and memories. Nico won. Nico always won.

~oOo~

The next morning Alex woke for his classes, remembering with the rest of the school, that it was Monday. There was a lot of groaning and bit of what sounded like Greek cursing as the Slytherins dragged themselves out of bed and slid themselves into their robes.

Alex was the perfect little student, sort of. He had DADA first, with the exchange student's teacher, whom he had heard in one of the speeches the previous night, would be leaving the school to be replaced with a surprise teacher this morning, so no one had any idea what they were in for. Alex took advantage of this.

When he had been a student he had always found a way to blame someone else for his pranks, like the time he had enchanted all the spare textbooks to start singing nursery rhymes when anyone said the name of their subject in their presence. Or the time he had charmed the Hufflepuff's seeker's broomstick to gain a personality of its own, difficult magic, but well worth it. He smiled at the memory as he watched his nest prank unfold. He had silently transfigured the student next to him rat into a teacup, which was causing a miniature panic attack beside him.

He suppressed a laugh and straightened his robes, pretending to look around for the rat under his bed, where he had stored the teacup, and turning it back into a rat to prevent his house from losing points.

He made his way through the halls, almost forgetting it was supposed to be his first day, and slowing down, pretending to just get with the flow of students while looking around as if curious, maybe not impressed, but as if he were intrigued. He wanted to give off the impression of being hard to impress, that usually got him points with the more popular crowds.

He finally made it to the classroom after a whole load of acting. This was going to a long year. The teacher strode briskly into the classroom. The teacher was a witch he had never seen before wearing emerald green robes and a black pointed hat decorated in black gems. Her light brown hair was loose around her shoulders and her face had an ageless quality to it, making it impossible to tell how old she was.

"Hello," She greeted with a friendly, yet somehow stern, smile, "I'm Professor Winifred Qualra, I will be your new defence against the dark arts teacher, taking the place of Professor Chiron, who must return to his own school due to safety issues he must address," well that was a tame way of putting it, from what Alex had heard, his school was being full on attacked.

"We will start this lesson with some review, so open your textbooks to page 35 but keep your wands ready, we will be practicing these spells later in the lesson…" And so she went on to explain the correct wand movements and pronunciations for several different blocking and attacking spells. Soon she had everyone partnered up, most of the exchange students together, who were using some fancy moments with their wands and footwork to make their spell more powerful and themselves harder to hit.

Alex was paired with Harry, the boy who lived himself.

"Hello, I'm Harry, though I guess you already knew that," Harry introduced himself, rubbing his neck awkwardly, "Um, anyway, I hear your name is Alex, is there anything else you'd like me to call you? Like do you have a nickname or something?"

Tom knew this was his attempt at being polite, but even his presence in the room had the words' Avada Kedavra' creeping to the tip of his tongue. He forced a polite smile and said, " No, just Alex. how are you with this spell?" He asked, knowing full well Potter was a master of it.

"I'm alright, but you've been tortured on this sort of thing for multiple years now, and I had some pretty bad teachers for a couple years, so I bet you're better than I am," Potter said, readying himself to cast the spell. _Oh, you have no idea,_ Tom thought evilly, the killing curse once again in the front of his mind.

Alex blocked Harry's strike easily, pretending to struggle slightly, making his wand movements just a little imperfect, his pronunciation just a little off. Harry, of course, took this as an opportunity to 'help' his fellow student. He proceeded to give Alex a brief demonstration of the wand movements and pronunciation, which, to be fair, was not perfect either.

Alex grit his teeth in a smile and thanked Harry, sending the spell at him this time, absolutely perfect. Harry just barely managed to dodge to spell with a fairly sloppy version of the spell he had just demonstrated for Alex. Tom couldn't help the slightest hint of a smirk tugging at the edges of his lips.

Just then the door swung open, hardly making a sound, but drawing the attention of the entire class. The blond from earlier, Will was his name? Stood in the open doorway, stunned by the sudden attention, before shuffling, with all eyes on him, to the front of the class to talk to the teacher.

"Professor Qualra?" He asked and she nodded, "I'm William Solace, I've been given permission from the headmaster to stay with my patient for the rest of the day to see to his full recovery, nor Nico will be joining you for the rest of the day,"

The professor watched him with an amused look on her face and waited patiently for him to finish his statement, "Alright then, if you must. Though, I have to ask, how did you come to be his doctor at such a young age?"

Instead of blushing or shying away from her like Tom expected him to do, he straightened his stance and almost subconsciously assumed to position of a soldier, "Our school provide very advanced classes on muggle and magical medicine, both of which I accede at further than most muggle heart surgeon or wizard doctors of any kind. Nico is specifically _my_ patient because _I_ am the only one who can get him to go through with any kind of treatment,"

That amused look hadn't left the professor's face but there was a hint of respect behind her eyes as well as she said, "And, may I ask, why is that?"

"Because I am one of the few who isn't afraid of him."

The amused look fell away to confusion, "Why would anyone fear a child?"

Will laughed bitterly, "Ask Harry Potter," all eyes shifted to Harry and she shrank back, turning bright red. Will left the room without another word.

~oOo~

Nico sat up in the hospital bed, looking over to see Will, sleeping in a lump on a chair next to his bed. Nico rolled his eyes, secretly loving the gesture and swung his leg silently over the edge of the bed. He slid his feet into his shoes and found his sword belt under the bed. He wasn't sure why it was there, considering he usually disguised his sword as a wring to keep up his cover, but he did occasionally find the belt in the most random places.

He decided just to leave it, assuming it would disappear to hang out in his cabin or something after a little while, and padded down the halls. He made it to the Slytherin dormitories and snuck in, using the password he had heard a Slytherin girl tell Will when they thought he had been sleeping.

He found a set of black and green trunks with a three-headed dog painted on the top of each and assumed it was his, because the godly side of his family was _real_ subtle.

He rolled his eyes and searched through his things, trying to find a weapon other than his sword to use, maybe a knife or a magically silenced gun or something other than his usual weapon. He didn't know why the sudden sentiment, but if he killed his childhood crush with that sword he would _feel_ like a murderer. He would never be able to use his prized weapon again. Not without this kill, this one little favor to his father, tugging at the back of his mind.

Relief flooded his veins as his fingers closed around the hilt of a silver dagger. He pulled it out just a little to examine the blade, to check if it was long enough for a clean kill and sharp enough to make it quick. As soon as he verified that, yes, it was both of those things, he shoved it under the pile of unnecessary clothes and went through the rest of the trunks.

He had just finished with the last of the largest trunks, all of which were filled with useless trinkets that the gods seemed to think a normal teenage boy would have, like clothes. _Way. Too. Many. Cloths._ He opened the last and smallest trunk, hoping his dad had put the useful stuff in the smallest one.

On top was a watch, just a plain bronze wrist watch with a black leather strap, which he put on for no real reason other than he thought it looked pretty good. Under that was a Slytherin scarf, which he tossed aside with a snort and turned back the trunk. He froze.

There, at the very bottom of the very smallest of the cases was a deck of Mythomagic cards. Dulux edition with silver and gold edges, still in the original packaging. He peeled off the plastic wrap and shuffled through the deck, reciting the stats of each card in his head as he went. He heard someone moan and roll over in their sleep and he shoved the cards in his pocket, stuffing everything back into the cases and vanishing behind the bed before the sleeping student could settle back into their bed.

He snuck past the beds, peeking into each one to get a gage where everyone was, he hesitated slightly when he came across Tom/Alex's bed. He looked so innocent when he slept. When he slept, he wasn't a killer. Nico shook the thought from his head and made it to the Slytherin common room, where Will stood waiting.

His doctor had a stern look on his face, arms crossed, stance wide. Nico was in trouble. Nico decided to go with his usual method of surviving Will, try to ignore him.

"Nico," Will started but Nico just glared at him and plopped down on one of the couches, "Nico, I need you to listen to me. I told you to get your rest, it's not healthy for you to go running off like this all the time!"

"Not now Will," Nico mumbled, but Will must have heard something in his tone because he stopped the lecture and sat down next to Nico, careful not to touch him.

"Nico, what's wrong," Will tone was gentle, his eyes soft, as he tentatively touched a hand to Nico's shoulder. When he didn't pull away Will pulled him into a hug and cuddled with him on the couch until Nico spoke up.

"I can't do it Will," He said numbly, "I can't do it,"

The pain in Nico's eyes broke something in Will. No one, _no one,_ should have to endure that kind of torture. No one should have to suffer like Nico did. No one should have to be so far beyond help like Nico.

And idea entered Will's head, it made him sick to think about, but it could help, it could take away some of the pain from Nico's eyes.

"I could do it for you," Will forced out, swallowing the lump in his throat.

Nico looked up at him, startled, "But...it's my quest? It's my job?" They were questions, not statements.

"Look, Nico, I doubt your father cares who does it, as long as it gets done. And I can't have you doing this to yourself, you'll kill yourself just trying to work up the nerve," Will gulped, "But I don't know him, it would be easy for me, or, at least, easier,"

Nico was trembling slightly in Will's arms, "I-I can't-I can't let you...I can't let you do that. Please Will, Please, I can, I will, just give me time-"

"No," Will was surprised at the certainty in his own voice, "No," he repeated, "I won't let you kill yourself over this,"

Nico wouldn't meet his eyes, "It's a direct order, Will. A clear, direct order," Nico forced his limbs to stop trembling, "I have to, I can't disobey my father like that, you don't know," He sucked in a shuddering breath, "You don't know what he'll do, Will, if he cares enough about his family's opinion to make me do this, even when he knows about...my past...he'll have to punish me. He'll punish me for not doing as I'm told, and you don't want to know what he can do, what his wife will do," He closed his eyes, "I just can't let you Will,"

Will nodded with a pained look in his eyes, "Okay Nico, but I can help, he didn't say you had to do it alone did he?"

Nico looked up at him, not sure if his offer would make things better or worse, "Thanks, Will," He said reluctantly. Little did Nico know, the time for him to complete his task was much shorter than either of them thought.

 **Hey y'all, sorry for the wait. I just got back from va-ca so I hope you can forgive me. Please leave a review with your guesses about Ever's braids, or really any prediction, suggestion, correction, so on and so forth. I'm tired, I** ** _did_** **only have a few hours of sleep after a two and a half hour plane ride yesterday, and that's not even mentioning the sheer amount of hassling it took to get through all the security to get off the ship, then on the plane, then we had to split up our group of eight into groups of four so we could take ubers over to some random mall near Fort Lauderdale, where the ship landed (the ship, by the way, is the Harmony of the seas, the biggest sailing cuise ship at this point in time).**

 **Anywho, the vacation was fun, despite the inconvenience afterward and the shock of cold I got when I got home, like HOLY FRICK IT IS COLD! Just yesterday I was in Florida, enjoying the sunny eighty-degree weather and now I'm shivering under six blankets and posting the fanfic chapter I finished before my dad confiscated my computer, thinking that I was going on it instead of sleeping. It was vacation. My dad is an idiot.**

 **My question for you guys is have you ever gone on vacation? If so, to where and how long ago. This was my first vacation ever, so I'm open to your stories (beware, anything you say may inspire ideas for my book)**


	21. Chapter 21

Ever grit her teeth under her natural expression, glaring at any monster who came to close as she contorter her hands. She had taught herself ages ago how to shift her thumb and pinky fingers to the center of her palm and escape almost any kind of shackles. The only problem? It hurt. Alot.

Her right hand slipped free and hse quickly loosened the knot with both hands and slipped it back in, then repeated the process with her other hand. She glanced over at her 'partners in crime', a titan and a giant. Damasen had been easy to explain the plan to, he was level headed enough and was friends with Percy Jackson. Ever had helpfully failed to mention that she was under orders to kill that particular demigod, but she hadn't been lying when she said she was on his side.

Bob was a little harder. He was friends with Percy as well, which had been the selling point for him, but he wasn't the brightest. Ever kept having to talk slightly slower, which was hard because she talked fast when she was nervous, and use smaller words. But now they were starting their escape plan. Ever tried not to think about how many things could go wrong as she caught Bob's eye and blinked twice.

He nodded and tripped the nearest cyclops. The monster fell to the ground and yelled at Bob, who pretended it was and accident and apologised. The spectacle drew the eyes of most of the monsters away from their prisoners. Ever slid free from her bonds and took the sword from the demigod nearest her.

"Hey!" He yelled and tried to attack her but she kicked him to the ground and ran him through. The monsters were now facing her, momentarily stunned. She took the precious second to free Damasen. The small army surged toward her at once, all reaching for weapons or baring teeth.

She sidestepped the first blow and decapitated the monster who threw it. Damasen had gotten ahold of a handful of spears, which he was using to pound monster on the head, snapping their necks or turning them into monster-kabobs.

Ever spun in a circle with her sword extended, killing the few unlucky enough to be in range. She ran at the horde in front of her and vaulted off a demigod's shield. In the air she released the enchantment on her wings.

Two huge masses of inky black feathers spread behind Ever like the wings of a dark angel. And to the monsters, that's exactly what they were. She dived into the mob with wings extended, knocking down dozens of monster in her path. She swooped back up and watched Damesen and the now-free Bob mow down monsters, the ones she knocked down getting trampled by her friends and theirs as the battle wore on.

Ever swooped back into the fray, taking down monsters left and right and slipping into a zone, tuning out everything but her mission, kill them all. She was a terrifying sight. The celestial bronze of her stolen weapon was a blur as it reduced monsters to dust and demigods to bloodied sacks of meat on the ground. Soon enough, the three allies were the last ones standing on a field of blood and golden dust.

An order broke Ever's trance. _Kill the traitors,_ it whispered and her body went stiff. Her eyes widened as she processed what the order meant. Her body betrayed her, turning on the giant and titan beside her. " _RUN"_ She screamed. Bob furrowed his brow in confusion as Damasen realized what she meant a second before Bob did. The titan wasn't completely stupid, he knew about her connection to her father and the orders he gave her.

They both ran, headed to Damasen old home. Ever ran after, trying to make her limbs stop moving. She only succeeded in slowing her legs down and preventing herself from using her wings to bypass the impossible terrain.

Damasen made it to his house first after a long run and ripped the tree from the ground. He used it like a baseball bat and swung it at Ever, sending her flying several feet into a nearby vein of cocytus. The vein popped and washed over her, sending her into a deep sleep as it convinced her to try to drown herself immediately and counteracting the order.

Damasen picked her up so she wouldn't drown in the new puddle and took her inside. He wrapped her in some soft draken skin and started to stew up some spare draken meat he had saved. He and Bob began talking in hushed tones while she slept, discussing the rest of her escape plan. Her very risky escape plan.

~oOo~

Nico woke in Will arms on the couch of the Slytherin commons. He untangled himself with a groan, rousing Will.

"Good morning death boy," Will greeted, rubbing his eyes.

"Mornin'," Nico said back, not bothering to tell Will not to call him that. He stretched his limbs and made his way to the boys room to get his robes.

He opened the door and kept his head down, refusing to even look at Tom, or to let him see his face. He was halfway to his trunk when Percy stopped him, "Hey Nico, where's Will?"

Nico didn't have to answer because just then the boy in question appeared in the doorway, "Good morning everyone!" Will shouted, rousing the rest of the students, he went over to Nico and put an arm around his shoulders, blocking Tom's view of his face.

"Oh, hey Will," Percy said, "I was wondering, do you still have that textbook I lent you? I'll need it today,"

"Oha yeah, it's, well, you know where it is," He said, glancing at the wizards.

Percy nodded, "Thanks, I'll go get it later," he started pulling on his uniform.

Will guided Nico to the two empty beds, careful to keep his face out of view of Tom Riddle, and started putting on his robes. Nico put his on over his regular clothes, not bothering with the uniform, unlike Will, who put the whole thing on without complaint. Nico blushed and looked away from Will's shirtless chest, instead looking at the ground and gathering his textbooks.

Nico hurried out of the room without anyone noticing him and made his way to his first class, DADA. He was the first one in the classroom and the professor was just setting up a large black trunk at the front of the classroom.

"Oh, You must be Nico," She greeted him with a smile, "would you mind helping me out with this," She said gesturing to the presumably heavy chest. He nodded and put his books on a desk and taking out the long dark wand he had found in one of his trunks.

He silently cast a levitation charm and moved the trunk the the center easily.

The professor smiled, "I was wondering what type of kid you were," She said, sitting on her desk, "Though I suppose Slytherin's do value cleverness don't they," Nico turned and sat down at the desk with his books.

"You know," The professor continued, "Not even the famed Harry Potter can cast silent magic that easily, and no wizard would use such complicated magic and such a simple task,"

"I'm not your average student," Nico responded simply.

"Apparently not, I hear your school is very advanced, and your trained in single combat?"

Nico nodded, "I can use a sword and can do some hand-to-hand combat, but I'm better with the sword,"

"Really? I don't see why anyone would need to know all of that, especially so young,"

"We don't want to be defenceless without our wands. It's a little more...tense...in America, you know, since the whole 'Salem witch trials' and there's a few new groups who are trying to keep the movement alive. We may not be in immediate danger, but knowing we can defend ourselves helps," He was making all this up off the top of his head, but he remembers that bit of history from when Annabeth was teaching Percy about the history of witchcraft in America and whatnot.

The professor nodded and opened her mouth to say something but at at that moment Will stepped into the room, "Nico!" He exclaimed, "I thought I told you to eat!"

Nico grumbled some unpleasant comments under his breath and spoke up, "You did, I'm not hungry,"

Will slapped a piece of toast onto the desk in front of Nico, " _Eat,_ "

Nico rolled his eyes and took a bit, glaring at Will, "Happy?" Will nodded and took the seat next to Nico.

"You can turn to page 479 if you want to be prepared when class starts," The professor said, getting back to her preparations. She wheeled a chalkboard from the side of the classroom and scribbled down a word in flowery cursive.

Will squinted at the board for a few seconds, trying to make out the word. Finally, he gave up, "Hey, Um professor? We both have dyslexia, do you mind telling me what you wrote up there?"

She looked at him, surprised, "I'm, sure, it's the charm I'll be teaching the class today, 'ridiculous', most of the class already learned it but I figured I'd do some review just to get a feel on how the class operates together," She went back to the board, scribbling down notes as Will wrote the charm in greek on his paper, with a regular pen, because he was no good with the quills the wizards still used for some reason.

Soon enough the classroom filled and the lesson began.

"Students," Professor Qualra began to get the students attention, "Now that we have a complete class, I would like to do some review," This prompter grumbling from all around the classroom, The professor help up her hands for silence, "I know most of you have worked with boggarts before, I have written the charm for repelling them on the board there, but I would like to know how you work together as a class,"

There was whispering from the students, fear and excitement evident in their voices.

"For those of you who don't know, a boggart has no true form, at least not one you can see. It transforms into your worst fear once you are in front of it. A simple spell will turn them into something humorous instead, though, so you needn't worry," The exchange students were all whispering amongst each other in that odd mix of latin and greek, nothing but fear in their voices.

"The charm is 'ridiculous', say it with me, ridiculous," The class said t with her three more times, until all of them could say it perfectly.

"All right, form a line, exchange students in the back since they haven't done this before, older svent years in the front, newer seventh years in the middle," Soon they had a long line leading to a huddled mass at the back of the classroom, the class being twice as large as usual.

The first student went up, her boggart becoming an old woman with a wand, yelling at her and threatening her with spells. She yelled the charm and the woman was suddenly dressed in a frilly pink dress and high heels, and she started dancing around singing nursery rhymes, which Nico would argue was scarier.

They went on like that for a while, Ron's becoming a spider, making Annabeth shriek involuntarily and bury her face in Percy's shirt. Harry came after his friend,the last of the older seventh years.

When he went up to the trunk it burst open and a copy of himself crawled out. The copy had red eyes like Voldemort and had a pasty skin tone, making him just a little snakelike. The not-Harry hissed and aimed the elder wand at real-Harry.

"You failed-," he was cut off by Harry yelling, "RIDDICULUS!" And suddenly the not-Harry was dressed in suspenders and playing the elder wand like a flute. There were uneasy laughs from the students, but most of them were just unnerved.

The rest of the students went, their fears ranging from evil copies of themselves to angry adults, one boy had a giant failed exam, he must have had a happy childhood (note the sarcasm). There were a few more with spiders or snakes, one elephant, another dragon, and it was the exchange student's turn.

Reyna went up first. She approached the trunk warily, her new wand ready. The top opened slowly and an image, like a window, appeared above it. It showed camp Jupiter in flames, New Rome beyond it. The bodies of demigods in full battle armor lay dead all around her, the lone survivor, in the center of the war games arena. She was on her knees, the body of her sister beside her, along with Nico, Will, and the seven.

Not-Reyna lifted her sword as a figure came into view, blurry and indistinct. The figure brew back a bow and let an arrow fly. Real-Reyna shouted "Riddiculus!" just as the arrow ran her through. She looked shaken, but not as bad as she should have looked, considering. She went silently back to her seat and sat down, refusing the offers of comfort from the demigods.

Next up was Leo. He was not in the least prepared, through he gripped his wand, his eyes were full of fear of what he was about to see. The box opened and another window appeared. It showed a workshop, not unlike the one his mother had burned to death in, but this time it was Calypso inside with him.

She stood at a small kitchen beside the main workshop, chopping some carrots with a knife and listening to some music through a pair of earbuds and humming along. In the classroom, someone laughed, but Leo knew what was coming.

A fire started in the workshop, but Calypso didn't notice, she just kept humming along to her song. The fire spread quickly, consuming the garage as if it were made of straw. The flames caught Calypso and she screamed, calling out for Leo. But he wasn't there. Percy stepped in front of his friend and yelled out the spell, making the image disappear before it could shift to his fear.

Unfortunately, Percy was next. The boggart came back, turning into Annabeth, as she had looked in the death mist, and Percy, also shrouded in death mist. They stood in a pool of poison, Percy controlling it, making it surround Annabeth and crawl up her legs, burning everywhere it touched. Real-Percy fumbled and dropped his wand, staying in horror at the false-him who ignored his girlfriend's screams.

Real-Annabeth shouted the spell from behind him, making the image go away, because there was really no way to make that image in any way funny.

Percy collapsed to his knees, apologizing over and over. Annabeth ran up and wrapped her arms around him, whispering comforting words into his ear as she slowly picked him up and led him to their desks at the back of the room.

The others went after, one by one, each experiencing the horrors of their darkest nightmares, almost all of them having to be saved by another.

Just before Will was Alex, who had insisted on being closer to the back of the line. He walked up, not knowing what he would face. The trunk opened, pushed by a pale, slender hand. The small child's hand gripped the edge of the box and pushed itself up. His dark angel came out of the box, no more than eight.

He jumped out of the box and landed bouncily on the ground, filled to the brim with endless energy. Tom heard a sharp intake of breath behind him, but he dared not turn away, afraid his angel would disappear.

Young Nico Di Angelo bounced up to him, his pockets stuffed with Mythomagic cards, which were falling out and scattering on the floor. He also had a deck in his hands, which he was shuffling through absently.

"Hi," Not-Nico said, "I haven't seen you in a while," Tom couldn't speak, his wand was hanging limply in his hand, forgotten, as his mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for water.

"You left me," Not-Nico continued, "My sister's dead, she left me all alone, and you left first," He showed Tom one of his cards, the Hades special edition, "I saved an extra for you, but I lost it," He tossed it on the ground and stepped on it. His tone became angry, "You _left_ me," He growled accusingly, "You left me alone with the bullies, they beat me up, without you, I only had my sister, and they beat her too,"

Tom heard the door open and close behind him and the sound of footsteps leaving the room and he glanced behind him to see the door click shut, the last two boys in line gone.

"Ri-riddiculus," He said, remembering the spell. The little boy was instantly gone, the bogart finding no way to make his image funny. Alex fled the room, ignoring the whispers of the student following him out the door.

In the hallway he saw that blond boy, Will, sitting next to a dark haired boy. They were speaking in hushed tones, and they seemed to be speaking greek, which wasn't a problem because Tom had pre-enchanted his ears to translate the language with a spell he found in a book in Diagon alley before he came here.

He couldn't see the dark-haired boy's face or make out what they were saying so he walked slowly into the hall, silently casting a silencing spell in his footsteps and hiding behind a pillar before either of them could spot him.

"-just wish I didn't have to," The mystery boy was saying, "You saw his worst fear, and now the others saw as well…" He trailed off, "Do you think we could change their memories? Just to buy me some time, I don't want them knowing yet, and you know what Reyna will do if she finds out,"

Will put an arm around the other boy's shoulders, but Alex didn't want to risk being spotted if he peeked out again, so he just listened.

"I think we can, but not all of them. We could do it to Percy, Annabeth, Leo, maybe Piper and Jason, but Hazel, and Reyna know you too well, if we try it on them they would probably fight back to hard for it to work,"

He heard the mystery boy curse in greek, "They're the ones who would do my task for me,"

"Not if you told them what you told me," Will's tone was gentle but there was something else as well, fear? Regret? Anger? Alex couldn't tell.

"But-"

"Nico, you know you can't keep them in the dark forever. Hazel's your sister, Reyna's one of the first friends you made since…"

"Say it." Nico spat, "Go on, say it, I'm not ten anymore. What? Are you afraid I'll split the ground open? That I'll throw a fit! Well, how about you stop treating me like the weak ten-year-old I was and treat me like you'd treat Percy! Or Jason! Or any one of the heroes! I went through so much more than my sister's death in the last year, I can handle the facts. She's dead, I can only wish I was," Alex heard the boy get up and shove Will against the wall, "Don't you treat me like a child Will," He hissed, "I could kill you easier than breathing," He stormed off down the hall, his footsteps ending suddenly before he should have been able to turn. Did he apparate? No, no one could do that in Hogwarts, could they?

Will pounded his fist against the wall, muttering something under his breath. Just then the door opened and Reyna stepped out, closing the door behind her.

"Where's Nico," She asked.

"He left,"

"I'll ask you then, what the Hades just happened?!"

Will looked up at her through his hair, "I'll tell you later, meet me next to the labyrinth entrance you found yesterday after lunch,"

"Well, you still have to go, and Nico will probably have to go tomorrow whenever he has this class again," they went back into the room and Alex snuck in after them, joining the crowd of students at the back of the classroom.

Will went up to the front and faced the chest. It burst open and black smoke billowed out, covering the ground and making the room dark.

"I trusted you, Will," The voice of the mystery boy said, "You didn't save me," A boy stepped out of the smoke, thin and pale with an oversized aviators jacket and a black sword hanging off his belt. The unnerving part? A red stain was spreading across his chest, where an arrow had struck home.

"You told me you would keep me alive," The boy sounded angry and heartbroken, like a child who had just discovered someone had broken an oath to him.

"You said you would save my life, even if it cost yours," The boy looked familiar, but Tom couldn't quite place him, the dark eyes and hair, the pale skin…

The boy, Nico Tom guessed, began to pace around Will, "You let your siblings die when the infirmary caught fire, trying to get to me, then you failed to save me as well," He stopped, looking Will in the eye, "You let them all die," Suddenly there were bodies, dozens of them, some of them were the exchange student's, others Tome didn't recognize, but they all wore greek battle armor over orange t-shirts.

Will stepped back, but tripped over the body of a blond girl, Annabeth, and fell. He scooted back, trying to escape the nightmare Nico. he backed up a little further but was stopped by a new body. When he turned and the smoke cleared it revealed Nico with an arrow through his chest, his eyes open wide in an expression of permanent shock and his left hand limp around the shaft of the arrow.

There was one difference, however, between the boggart and reality. Tom had seen the real Nico's left hand, and he was certain he hadn't seen a silver and emerald wedding band around his ring finger. The little ring made the image just that much more horrifying.

"You made an offer," The boggart said, "You offered to do my father's task for me," Will looked up at the fake Nico, his eyes shattered, "You should have. Now I'll end up in the fields, you know how seriously _those_ kinds of crimes are taken,"

"Riddiculus," The professor stepped in. The boggart was sucked back into the trunk and she locked it, turning to face Will. She kneeled beside him and said something Alex couldn't hear and helped the boy to his feet.

"Class dismissed," She said, steadying Will on his shaking legs. The class cleared out, everyone leaving except the exchange students. Alex joined the crowd, still puzzling over who the boy could be. Suddenly, it clicked. _Nico Di Angelo._ There was no other explanation, other than coincidence. The boy looked like his Nico, his name was Nico, which wasn't a very common name, even the way he talked and held himself was reminiscent of the ten-year-old boy Tom had had a crush on.

Tom rushed to his next class, knowing Nico was going to be there. Or, at least, he was supposed to be there. Tom smirked at the memories of all the time he and Nico had skipped their lessons at the orphanage in favor of playing in the woods while Bianca taught them to read with games. He shook his head, remembering where he was and made it to the classroom.

He took a seat in the middle of the room and watched professor Trawley, who had apparently been brought back after the centaur who had replaced her quit after the battle of Hogwarts, pace the room. She had glass balls on little stands on every desk, which were presumably for fortune telling, which everyone knew was a bunch of nonsense, but this was the easiest class to pass, so quite a few students signed up for it.

The exchange students were scattered throughout the school, but Percy and Annabeth were together in this class. He watched them talking in hushed tones, eyes darting around the room as if expecting to be attacked. He wondered what got them to be that way. Many of the exchange students had had some sort of camp in their boggart visions, specifically two different camps, one in Annabeth's, which had shown the camp in flames with dead kids all around her and a blond boy with golden eyes standing in the middle of it all and killing Percy. And the other had been in Reyna's eerily similar vision.

Wow. Those kids must have been through hell to even be able to imagine that sort of thing. Then he remembered that, because of him, they probably had. He had, after all, started a war. The only thing that confused him was the blood, it was a wizarding war they fought in, so why did their visions show swords and spears?

The classroom had filled up while he thought and he noticed that Nico was sitting a table over. Alone. His heart fluttered a little, realizing that he had his chance. The professor instructed them to look into their crystal balls and try to see the future. Alex pretended to stare into the orb while considering how he would approach Nico.

Of course, he wanted to know how he had managed to stay so young, and he knew he wouldn't recognize him, not with his disguise, so he'd have to convince Nico it was really him. He decided to just wing it and moved over to Nico's table.

"Hey," He greeted. Nico jumped and looked up at him, alarmed, and...nervous?

"Um, hi," Nico said back, gluing his eyes to the orb in front of him.

"So, what's your name,"

"Nico." He didn't talk as much as his Nico, maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe this boy was just a boy who looked similar to a little boy from the forties who happened to share the same name and have a sister who shared the same name as the little forties boy.

"Last name?" Tom asked, hopeful.

Nico opened his mouth to respond when the professor interrupted him, "Mister Di Angelo, if you would please look at your crystal ball," She said as she prepared some incense near one of the windows.

"Your name is...Nico Di Angelo?" He asked, the spark of hope rekindling, "And you have a sister named Bianca?"

"Had," Nico corrected stiffly, "I _had_ a sister named Bianca,"

"Oh, sorry," Tom said, "I...didn't know," He looked down sadly, "Did you ever know someone named Tom Marvolo Riddle?" He asked, wondering how willing Nico was to give himself up.

"Why would you care," Nico answered. Everything he said and did seem stiff, angrier than before. The little kid Tom had known was gone. But he wanted to know the boy who had taken his place.

"Just wondering, I just heard that Tom used to know a boy named Nico. He cared about him a lot, was sad to see him leave,"

Nico visibly stiffened, "Come with me," He said and left the room. The professor didn't even notice as the boys went into the hall and went down it, going down the stairs and leaving the castle without anyone stopping to ask where they were going.

Nico led him to the edge of the woods and stopped, "The woods, can you go in?"

Tom furrowed his brow, confused, "What?"

Nico rolled his eyes, "Cut the crap Tommy, I know who you are, can you go in the woods without getting yourself killed?"

"Um, yeah," He responded, even more confused, "But how-"

"I can't tell you." Nico turned and went into the woods, not waiting to see if Tom would follow. Tom stumbled after him, not as adept at moving through rough terrain. They soon came to a clearing about a mile in, far enough that no one would hear them, and close enough that they could get back to the castle if they needed to.

"Nico," Tom said between breaths, he was really out of shape in this body, "You can't just-" He gasped, "say something like that and-" pause for breath, "not elaborate,"

Nico stopped and turned to him, the pain in his eyes more than Tom could stand to see, "Oh Tommy," He whispered, "why did you have to die?"

Tom looked up, confused, "But I came back," He said, "It doesn't matter anymore,"

Nico shook his head, "You don't understand Tommy," He put his hands on Toms' shoulders, "You don't know how many people you angered by coming back here. Nobody's supposed to be able to come back, with Potter being the only exception, and even then it's because of an oath death made when he gave the hallows to the brothers. And a few special circumstances,"

Tom shook his hands off, "Don't mention Potter's name!" He snapped, then regretted it. He softened his tone, "I'm sorry, Nico, it's just, he's the one who murdered me in the first place,"

"There is no murder in war," Nico said absently, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Angel," Tom started but saw Nico wince under the name and corrected himself, "Nico, how are you still alive, if no one is supposed to be able to cheat death how did you?"

Nico looked him dead in the eye, "I _didn't_ cheat death," He stated, "I avoided him,"

" _Him?_ "

Nico shook his head, turning away, "Look, you're not making this any easier,"

"Making what easier?" Tom asked.

"You-me-us-here-alive," Nico let out an exasperated sigh and ran his fingers through his unruly hair.

"I know, it's strange, but we're wizards. Weird is kinda part of the deal," Nico laughed bitterly at Toms words. He had no idea.

Tom took that as affirmation and asked, "So, how are you alive?"

Nico knew that was coming, the problem was, he didn't have an answer, "Um...It's kinda a long story," He said, trying to get Tom to just brush it off or change the topic.

"Well, I became the most powerful dark wizard ever and split my soul into Horcruxes, them when that little do-gooder Potter killed me I escaped the underworld and came back," Nico could tell that he had held back the 'and I'm planning to kill Harry' at the end of that little summary.

Nico gulped, "I...well...um...you see, I-" He winced under Toms quizzical gaze, "Well," He settled for being as honest as possible, "there's this enchanted hotel in America, anyone who enters it is put into a sort of suspended animation. I only know of three people who escaped on their own and those were...special circumstances. Anyway, Bianca and I ended up there a few years ago, not long after we left the orphanage. We were taken out by another wizard, he's the one who figured out what we were and taught us a few simple spells. He's...dead,"

"Oh, people seem to die a lot around you," He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but he did.

Nico raised an eyebrow, "At least I'm not the one killing them," He said casually, like a regular kid stating that he wasn't the one who lost their team a football game. Even to Tom, that was a little unnerving, especially with the image of the sweet, energetic boy he remembered.

There was a moment of silence as neither boy knew what to say, then Tom spoke up, "Er, Nico…" He trailed off, not entirely sure how to ask the question that was eating away at his mind, "What-what happened to you,"

Nico shook his head, "I went through hell, Tommy, I went through it alone. It did things to me, it changed me, Tommy, I'm not the same boy you knew,"

Tom cocked his head to the side, "Well neither am I Angel," Tom thought, just for a second, that a slight tinge of pink colored Nico's cheeks, but then it was gone and Tom thought he had imagined it. Just wishful thinking.

"I became powerful, Angel, I could have taken over the world. Instead, I was killed. I can do it again, all I have to do is kill the boy who lived, then I can get rid of all the idiotic laws put in place by the fools in the ministry,"

Nico raised an eyebrow, "You do know I'm muggleborn, right?" He said, just to screw with Tom's head.

"Oh…" Tom didn't seem to know what to say, it was like telling your homophobic best friend that you were gay right after they said how much they hate gay people, "I guess I could let you live…" He seemed to realize just how that sounded as it came out of his mouth.

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Let me live?" He asked. Tom shrank under his gaze, cornered, "So, if I was friends with, say, a few dozen 'mudbloods' as you call them, would you _let them live_ as well?"

"Well, I...of course I would-I mean….um…"

"Your plan is flawed Riddle," Nico said, leaning against a tree, "You'll have to fix that if you ever want to get into power.

"And how would I do that? I want to create the perfect world for wizardkind, to do that I have to rid it of the impure. How do I rid it of the impure without killing the ones with impure blood?" He said without thinking about who he was talking to.

Nico had always a bit of a freaky kid, even when he was at the orphanage, but the look on his face now sent shivers down Tom's spine, "How about," Nico said, his voice becoming hushed, dangerous, "You change your idea of a perfect world." He locked eyes with Tom, daring him to look away. He didn't.

"I barely remember my mother," He whispered, "but what I do remember tells me she didn't deserve to be murdered like she was," Tom's eyebrows drew together, he hadn't known Nico's mother was murdered. Thunder rumbled in the quickly darkening sky, the air becoming thick with the scent of impending rain.

Nico glared at the sky, as if challenging the storm. The sky was silent.

"She was a muggle Tommy, my mother, you're telling me that because she was born a certain kind of person she deserved her fate?"

"I thought your mother died in a freak accident?" Tom said, face scrunched up in confusion, "And you never knew your father, he could have been a wizard for al you know,"

Nico laughed bitterly, "Oh, my dad showed up, he's no wizard." Nico didn't elaborate.

Tom didn't want to ask any more about Nico's family, that look in his eyes made him want to fall to his knees and beg forgiveness. He, the dark lord, the most powerful living wizard of his generation, the wizard who escaped the underworld itself, was terrified of this little Italian boy.

Tome cleared his throat, "So, um, you have a girlfriend?" He asked to change the subject, his voice with just the tiniest bit of hope under the surface.

Nico smirked, that dark look leaving as quickly as it had come, "I'm gay Tommy,"

Tom couldn't help smiling, "Oh, um, that's good...good…" He cleared his throat again, "So, a boyfriend then?"

"His name's Will,"

"Oh...that doctor kid? Doesn't seem like your type,"

Nico laughed, actually laughed, the cherry sound seeming foreign from the Ghost King's lips, "Oh, believe me, I didn't think so either. To be honest I thought he hated me when we first met, because…" He trailed off, remembering who he was talking to, "I did something...bad...and he was trying to stop me...so…"

"What did you do?" Tom asked, once again hitting a conversational landmine,

"I...well...let someone die…"

Tom raised an eyebrow, not in the least disturbed. In fact, if he was honest with himself, he was just a little relieved Nico had turned out to be like this, more like him, "Who?" He asked.

"This jerk who tried to kill my…" He debated what to call them, maybe they were friends now, but only in the loosest of terms, none of them, not even Will, knew everything that had happened to him, only Reyna even had an idea of the pain he was in, and even what she knew was barely a fraction of what he was enduring every day.

"...allies," He settled on the word, meant to express near strangers, united through a battle of some kind. That word described them better than any other he knew, they knew nearly nothing about him, yet they were united in their fight against the monsters that hunted them.

"He had rallied a bunch of troops to attack my school. He had gotten himself caught on some of his own weaponry and was killed by some of his own troops. Will and I were close enough to save him and had plenty of time but I stopped Will before he could save him."

Tom laughed quietly, "Sounds like he deserved it," He said.

"Yeah, he did," Will said from behind Nico, stepping out from the trees.

Toms' hand flew to his wand and he was about to draw it when Nico held up a hand to stop him, "Hey Will," He greeted, a little stiffly. Tom squinted, once again confused by his childhood friend. Will responded with an equally stiff nod, as if they knew something Tom didn't, something bad.

"This is Tommy," Nico said, gesturing at Tom, "Tommy, this is Will, my boyfriend,"

Tom nodded stiffly at Will but his wand was still gripped tightly in his fist, his eyes calculating as he studied the happy-go-lucky boy who had managed to gain the affection of Nico Di Angelo. In his mind, he considered the use of love potion, or maybe some kind of curse or spell as possibilities as to why the smiley, upbeat boy in front of him had captured Nico's heart.

Will gave him a tight smile, one that was clearly out of character for him, and gave him a nod, only slightly less stiff than the one he had given him, "Hi,"

Tom turned to Nico, realizing that he had used his real name, "Wait, you told him?!"

Nico nodded, "Keeping secrets from him is like trying to keep Leo from burning something down every three days, you can try, but you'll fail,"

"Also, I'm his doctor, he has to tell me everything," Will added with a grin. Nico gave him a half-hearted glare but said nothing.

Tom opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a growl from the trees.

 **Hey Y'all! So the reveal for the meaning of Ever's braids will be in the next chapter so y'all give me your guesses on this one asap. I will wait to post the next chapter until I've got 20 guesses, I'm sure you can give that to me can't you? 20 of y'all have got to tell me what you think they mean before the next chapter gets posted. Also, OVER 6000 FREAAKING WORDS WTF! yay. yeah, I could have gone longer but I figured y'all had better shit to do than read my fanfic for an hour, I know it's hard to read it in this format, it is for me at least. Also, tell me what you think, do you like my longer chapters? Or do you prefer them shorter? Let me know! I also want to know what you think is coming up next, like who is the mysterious person whom I totally didn't completely forget about as I got wrapped up in school? And why are they on the bad side? Will we see Hermione again? (spoiler alert! probably not)**

 **And finally, what do you want to see? Do you want me to include more of Ever? Am I putting too much of her? Just the right amount? Do you want me to unveil the big boss, because Nico technically at least knows what they look like so that would make sense, so I probably will. Do you want to know more of Ever's backstory, or are you getting sick of her? Seriously, if you tell me you want to see something happen, almost literally anything, I will at least consider it, I gurentee that.**

 **TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE NEXT!**


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